The Wearing of Egret Plumes (1892)
AUTHOR: Lovell, Mary Frances
PUBLICATION: “The Wearing of Egret Plumes.” Union Signal Vol. XXVIII no. 50 (15 December 1892): 15 (col. 3).
https://archive.org/details/mdu-043101/page/n951/mode/2up
University of Bristol Library Notes: “This leaflet can be obtained of the Humane Education Committee, No. 61 Westminster Street, Room 32, Providence, R. I.”: bottom of final page.
ANA 001035663 BRU01 Vivisection The wearing of egret plumes
Notes (General):
"This leaflet can be obtained of the Humane Education Committee, No. 61 Westminster Street, Room 32, Providence, R.I.": bottom of final page.
Caption title.
No. 6 in a volume with spine title: Vivisection.
Signed at end: Mary F. Lovell.
KEYWORDS: animal welfare, dress reform
Ward, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Trixy
SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):
Lovell promotes animal welfare and dress reform, condemning the wearing of egret feathers. She points out that, contrary to the common misconception that egret plumes used in fashion are “manufactured,” they are, in fact, obtained from live herons. What is worse, “those who engage in the business of procuring these plumes know that to obtain a good supply with little trouble, the birds must be taken when the breeding season is well advanced. The best time to attack them is when the young birds are fully fledged, but not yet able to fly; for at that time the solicitude of the parent birds is greatest, and, forgetful of their own danger, they are most readily made victims” (15). Thus not only are these birds killed for a handful of feathers, their offspring is left to starve and die, too. “Any observant person,” Lovell continues, “who notices these plumes waving, not singly, but often in clusters, on the heads of nearly every woman, must know that the slaughter has not been thousands, but millions” (15). Those who wear egret feathers are complicit in these cruelties.
Last updated on November 21st, 2024
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