YJA Convention 1996 07 San Francisco CA Second

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

Page 49

AHIMSAK CLOTHING AND COSMETICS - JIV DAYA
By: Shilpa Shah
The Jiv Daya Committee is a committee of JAINA which was activated in November 1993 under the chairship of Narendra B. Sheth. Most of the committee members are young Jains who have been recruited from all regions of JAINA.
For the Second Biennial YJA Convention, the Jiv Daya committee will be presenting a workshop, coordinated by Narendra Sheth and Shilpa Shah, focusing on the cruelties behind various clothing items and personal care products and the solutions to these problems. Through skits, written by Yashica Ghelani and Monali Shah and performed by Dimple Shah, Hetal Jain, Shilpa Sejpal, Deepti Doshi, Amit Patil, Raja Jain, Rajat Fofaria, Rupen Fofaria, Samir Sejpal, Smita Varia, Nishit Mehta, Shweta Shah, Nihar Shah, Neville Shah, Shripal Shah, Monali Shah, Mr. Narendra Sheth, and Mrs. Sonal Sheth, we will illustrate these issues. Following the skits, participants will be broken down into small discussion groups lead by Tej Sheth, Hemal Mehta, Dimple Shah, Shripal Shah, Monali Shah, Shilpa Shah, and Poorvesh Sheth. Some major issues and information to be discussed in the skits are listed below.
Draize Test: Nearly every major company uses animal by-products in their cosmetics, which they test on animals. One test is the Draize Test. In this test, helpless animals are ruthlessly strapped down and their eyes clipped open while fragrances are sprayed into the eye, without anesthesia. In addition, many of the rabbits break their necks or backs as they struggle to escape.
LD-50: The LD-50 Test, another kind of test conducted on animals, involves forcing a cosmetic down a animals' throat to quantify how much of a substance is needed to kill half the animals in the group. Again no pain killers are used. Sometimes these animals die from the sheer bulk of the dosage.
Not only are animals very different from humans, but different species of animals are so different from each other that tests done on one kind of animal yield very different results from tests done on another.
Leather: Contrary to popular belief, leather is not necessarily a byproduct of the meat industry. Cows raised for meat and milk are often so abused that their leather is not very attractive, so separate herds are raised for this purpose. About 1.5 billion cows, sheep, goats, and pigs are killed each year in support of the leather industry.
Skins: In addition, there are a number of other species that are specifically hunted and killed for their skins, these include zebras, deer, elephants, tigers, eels, whales, dolphins, frogs, alligators, lizards, and snakes. In fact, about one third of exotic leathers come from endangered species whose killing and importation is a crime.
44 For Private & Personal Use Only