‘Is Your Paintbrush Made From Mongoose Hair?’: A Wildlife Group Is Blasting Amazon for Selling Brushes Made Illegally From Endangered Fur

The Wildlife Trust of India has put out a
statement condemning Amazon for selling paintbrushes made of
mongoose hair, citing the endangered animal’s legal protections in
India, where some 100,000 mongooses are illegally killed each
year.

“Our concern is why you would be promoting the sale of items
when you know there is a high probability of illegal trade,” the
group’s chairman, Jose Louies, told the Art
Newspaper.

The organization is calling on the company, as well
as Chinese e-commerce websites Alibaba and AliExpress, to
remove listings for paintbrushes made of mongoose fur. As of
press time, Amazon had not responded to inquiries.

An Amazon search for “mongoose paintbrush”
currently yields no search results, but the brushes can be
misleadingly labeled as being made from legal alternatives, such
as badger and sable hairs.

A documentary produced by
the Wildlife Trust of India focuses on the ugliness of the
market. For every 50 mongooses killed, brushmakers get only
about 2.2 pounds of fur. India, home to six species of
mongoose, outlawed the mongoose fur trade in 1972 in an effort to
protect the endangered animal. Hunting and trading them is
punishable by up to seven years in jail.

In a recent crackdown on
the illicit trade in India, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau made
49 arrests and seized 54,000 paintbrushes in factories and
warehouses across the country. And in 2018, authorities made 19
further arrests and seized 79,000 brushes. Based on that volume,
authorities believe that as many as 100,000 mongooses are being
killed each year, according to Mongabay-India. The
animals are often ensnared and beaten to death with clubs.

“Despite all these raids, if you go to any shop in major Indian
cities, they still largely stock brushes made out of mongoose
hair,” Louies told the News Minute, an Indian
news organization.

“The number of animals killed for this trade is the single
largest threat the species faces today,” he said. “Even though
there are other alternatives available, the fine quality of the
hair, its durability and brittleness has endangered the
animal.”

Artists have long favored mongoose paintbrushes, which are
desirable for being neither too firm nor too soft, and which can be
tapered to a fine point, making it easier for artists to paint
small details.

As animal cruelty concerns have mounted, many artists have
traded in their animal brushes for synthetic alternatives, which
have become increasingly effective in mimicking the delicate shape
and texture of actual fur.

But the demand for mongoose paintbrushes is still strong enough
to sustain a market.

“I personally think it’s a big issue and have stopped using any
products that harm other animals, but many artists have sadly not
done the same,” Indian artist Maksud Ali Mondal
told Mongabay-India. “They don’t seem to be concerned where it
is coming from or how it was made, only that it is giving them the
result that they like. This is highly problematic.”

The post ‘Is Your Paintbrush Made From Mongoose Hair?’: A
Wildlife Group Is Blasting Amazon for Selling Brushes Made
Illegally From Endangered Fur appeared first on artnet
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