Thursday 15 December 2011

Civets

Love my perfume, ....love smelling good... but  I was in awe  and disgusted when I learned what used  to go into the making  of my Chanel No.5 perfume; the  musk  from Civets. 
Disgusted  not because  the ingredient  came from an  animal  but because I knew that  there wouldn't have  been a humane way to extract the musk.
Well, Civet is a  common name for a species of dozen or more small mammals that have a cat-like  appearance  but  with an extended muzzle.
 The perineal glands  of  the male and female civets produce the prized musk, perfume makers would kill the animals  to harvest the musk. These days, I read that they scrape the musk from the living animal (apparently  that is deemed as humane).  Imagine that.  Awful.  We humans, we spare nothing.

Perineal - area around the genitals and anus.

   Indian civet Image from program.wcs.org
Banded palm civet  Image from factzoo.com

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