Lush, a passionate campaigning company against animal cruelty, has launched a social awareness campaign, ‘FinFree’, with the aim of educating customers about shark finning and empowering them to join the fight against the shark fin trade.
The shark fin trade is an extremely profitable, high-demand business that has significantly grown in the last 50 years. The majority of sharks’ fins are used for shark fin soup and other expensive dishes that are seen as status symbols. But shark fins and other parts of sharks are used for a shocking amount of different products, including energy drinks, vitamins, pet supplements, dog toys, lipsticks, lotions, shark leather and vaccines.
In addition to the extreme animal cruelty that comes with this practice, shark finning can be detrimental to the ocean’s ecosystem. Sharks have been on the top of the ocean’s food chain for 4 billion years and keep marine life in a healthy, regulated balance. By helping to keep the ocean health, they are protecting a resource that produces more oxygen than all of the rainforests combined, removes half of the atmosphere’s manmade carbon monoxide, and controls our planet’s temperature and weather. The balance that sharks bring to the world is not only important for animal rights, but the entire planet.
Recognising these threats, the campaign’s aim is to save sharks by encouraging customers to sign a pledge both in-store and online to increase engagement and awareness around the #FinFree movement. Lush will be selling their ‘Shark Fin’ soap throughout the campaign, which will run from 13 to 29 April 2015.
