So... When your product is low quality anyway and was always priced too high for what it was, and you are now getting slaughtered by the new badger brushes being sold direct from China at better quality and much much much lower prices than yours, what do you do as a business? Why you get out of badger brushes and move to synthetics but first you virtue-signal that your reason isn’t that you have been priced out of the market but rather that you are suddenly overcome with corporate sympathy for the plight of the poor little badgers. And you get the idiots at PETA to endorse your virtue, including the fact that you are about to do a lot of expensive R+D to "find a humane alternative" -- despite the fact that all the R+D has already been done by others and your own R+D will merely consist of picking a current Chinese manufacturer to make your own version. And then you start selling synthetic brushes -- at three times the normal price. But because you have had the foresight to get "Endorsed by PETA" stamped all over your brushes ahead of time, there's a good chance you will sell a boatload to people who will feel good about themselves for "paying a little more but it's to help the animals". Did I miss anything here? And no, there's not a chance in Hell I would ever buy a brush from these smarmy cynical manipulators...
I love animals so I think that this is a step in the right direction. I can understand why people might prefer a badger brush and I'm sure that there will be a market for them long after I'm gone. However, maybe this change will get people who were on the fence to finally give synthetics a try. I use one almost every day and it's phenomenal.
I preface this by saying that I have several badger brushes, and don’t have an issue with animal hair being used. That being said, my wife showed me a video. Not sure if it is the same one as is referenced here. It was bad enough that if I knew which company was using that farm, I would boycott them. What I saw had nothing to do with regular farm practices. Why a group of people would have to treat animals like we saw I have no idea. I echo what Doug said earlier about humane treatment. I have no faith in AoS, and doubt they are making a decision for ethical reasons, but I really was uncomfortable.
Seems to me that as a customer, AOS was in a position to exert at least some pressure on the farms they bought from to clean up their act. What they have done is relinquish their influence. Doesn't help the badgers at all, but "aren't we oh so woke?"
lamb chops and wool socks...people have forgotten what we threw spears at....granted , animal cruelty is wrong.. but the tree huggers forget they wore diapers too....
That’s exactly what I was thinking!! When I first went to change from a cartridge razor that is where I was sent. I turned and walked out after a few minutes thinking something wasn’t right. Then I found this wonderful place and met all these amazing people here who set me straight!!
The "Moon Bats" are at it again. Also isn't a badger a giant rat? But I will continue to use badger and boar. I really think there are more pressing world issues like disease and famine. Who gives a damn about a caged rat harvested for commerce, I am sure the Chinese also eat the meat, they eat dogs, grasshoppers etc. etc. Most of the time they die instantly when they are clubbed, here and there they survive the club and suffer a little before they die. I remember as kid spending summers in the old country (Azores island, Santa maria) they would slaughter a cow with a sledge hammer, calmly smash it's skull and it died instant and "humanely" Basically a captive bolt gun done by elbow grease and human skill.
Usually they grandfather in people who already have Badger brushes. PATA wanted to save the cute little baby seals, and people are being eaten by Great White (no relation to @twhite) Sharks. What do these animals feed on, "Seals".
Humane treatment is fine, but I hope that all of us can agree that unnecessarily torturing or mistreating animals is despicable behavior (especially since, like you mentioned, it should be fairly easy to make it a quick, painless process). I'm not a vegan or vegetarian and I use all the different animal hair brushes, but I'm also quick to admit that seeing some of the videos of inhumane treatment really tears me up.