Pearls are one of the jewelry accessories that are sold under the name of elegance and status of purchasing power. However, the practice of pearl farming is not cruelty-free and in fact, there is much controversy surrounding its use.
They may look very stylized in accessories such as chokers, bracelets and earrings, but the story behind such elegance is full of cruelty. Pearls are not precious stones that come from geological processes. In reality, these small stones come from an animal called an oyster.
How are pearls formed?
Pearls are stones created by two types of mollusks: saltwater oysters and freshwater mussels. When an irritant, such as a parasite, small rock, or sand dust, infiltrates an oyster or mussel, they react in defense. The stress generated by the intrusion of a foreign agent into their shells causes these mollusks to secrete a crystalline and iridescent liquid called nacre, which is made from aragonite. Thus, they cover the intruder with thousands of layers of nacre until they form a pearl.
Of course, it is a very slow process that does not take place overnight, without saying that, during all this time, the animal suffers stress. A pearl takes between two and four years to form inside oysters, at which point collectors extract it and then sell it. However, as it is an extremely time-consuming process and also does not occur in all others (only in 1 in 10,000), collectors have devised a process to obtain pearls en masse; pearl cultivation. Which is nothing more than the exploitation of these mollusks in a massive way and less expensive than harvesting.
What is pearl farming like?
Pearl farming involves surgically opening each oyster shell to insert an irritant inside them. According to PETA, freshwater pearls are grown by inserting the mantle tissue of another mussel. While in saltwater oysters, beads with oyster tissue inserted are introduced. Farmers stress these small aquatic animals even more by constantly changing the water temperature to generate a greater amount of nacre. Once the pearls are extracted, a third of the oysters are ‘recycled’ and subjected to the process of introducing intruders again. The rest are killed and discarded.
Millions of mollusk lives are lost for the banal satisfaction of hanging a pearl accessory on the body. Nowadays it is easier to find cruelty-free alternative ways to show off elegant accessories. So the use of pearls can no longer be justified under the name of elegance, the decision is yours.