Romeo & Juliet (A tale of two silk worms)

Display of the silkworm's life cycle

Are you against leather and fur? Then you should be against silk and pearls as well. I used to believe that silk came from the left over cocoons of silk worms and that pearls were simply pulled out of the oyster and the oyster went on living, but I was wrong.

After a visit to a Beijing silk factory, I learned that silkworms are boiled alive and then their bodies are taken out of the cocoons and thrown to the side. If you visit a silkworm factory you can see it for yourself, and they will let you take the dead silkworm out of its cocoon yourself. The cocoons only have so much thread, so it takes (according to my own estimation) about a hundred silkworms to die for you to have a scarf. So the next time you decide to ditch the fur collar for the silk scarf, remember you are going from killing one to killing a hundred. Sometimes the cocoons have two silkworms inside. This makes the threads even harder to untangle, so the cocoons become bedding for silk comforters and quilts. It takes thousands of cocoons to make a comforter, and it costs twice that amount of lives.

When we went to the pearl factory it was a similar story, except at the very last oysters produce more pearls so not as many of them have to die for one necklace as silkworms have to die for one scarf. The tour guide at the pearl factory took us into a room with a large fish tank full of oysters. Without hesitating (since she does this several times a day), she took out a oyster and broke it open saying, "Now this is only a baby oyster." She them stabbed it to get out the pearls, and tossed the actual oyster to the side. I don't know much about oyster physiology, but I can imagine that it was probably still alive after she scooped out all the pearls, but was probably slowly dying and in lots of pain as it was left their on the counter as we exited the room. So how many oysters had to die for you to have your pearl necklace?

I'm not sure how one can get away from these materials that are made from killing animals, considering that they are everywhere. I, for one, will still go out and buy a silk scarf once I find one I like, but I will now think twice before getting a silk comforter or a pearl necklace. Hopefully with this knowledge, you will too.

"You know what we call those two silkworms who are in a cocoon together? The Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet." ~ Our tour guide.

Machine that unravels the threads from the singular cocoons.

How they separate the threads from "Romeo & Juliet's" cocoon.