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NARS latest to give badgers a brush-off

More badgers will stay warm this winter as a growing number of companies drop the small creatures’ coarse hair from their products amid pressure from animal rights activists.

The French beauty company NARS has agreed to stop using badger hair in its brush products, it told The Post — joining some 90 companies that have banned the fur amid pressure from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

NARS has discontinued, and is no longer producing, brushes with badger hair. NARS expects the full phase out to be completed by early next year, a spokesperson for the makeup company said.

Used mostly in cosmetics, shaving and paint brushes, badger hair is increasingly being replaced by synthetic brushes made from nylon after PETA undercovered brutal treatment of the animals — known as the emblem of the Hufflepuff house in the Harry Potter book series — in 2017.





PETA’s probe resulted in a hair-raising video of the animals in captivity at farms in China, the largest producer of commercial badger hair. The videos showed the animals in small cages that caused them distress, including one badger with what appeared to be a chewed-off paw.

Workers at the farms were shown bludgeoning badgers in the head with a chair leg and then slitting their throats.

Last year Proctor & Gamble became the first large company to agree to eliminate badger hair from its upscale subsidiary, Art of Shaving, which makes shaving brushes that cost as much as $250.

“When PETA reached out to P&G about this report on the badger hair industry, we were very disturbed to learn of these terrible practices,” the company told Bloomberg at the time. “While we have no evidence that any of our suppliers are engaging in these types of methods, we believe we can play a role in helping to stop such practices.”





P&G is still selling through its existing inventory, according to Sara Britt, a PETA spokeswoman. “But we didn’t want that to slow down our momentum” by not including it on the list of companies that have agreed to stop using badger hair in favor of synthetic products.

Other companies that have made similar pledges include Sherwin-Williams, Shany Cosmetics, Caswell Massey and The Vermont Country Store, according to PETA.

The 90 companies represent about two-thirds of the industry, according to PETA, which is still pursuing another 35 companies, including Blick Art, a large supplier of paint brushes and other art supplies.





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Filed under beauty , nars , peta , 10/24/19