Shahtoosh

Shahtoosh, sometimes referred to as Shatush or in the German area as king wool is a wool from the fur of endangered Tschiru ( Pantholops hodgsonii ), also known as Tibetan antelope, is obtained illegally. The animals are killed.

The wool is usually processed into luxurious scarves - are considered status symbols, although the production, the sale and purchase of Shatush are illegal - as a replacement for the now proscribed furs.

Production

The protected species of wild animals are killed for the illegal manufacture of textiles in order to get to the very fine warm woolly hair of the undercoat. The average fiber diameter is 11.45 microns with a standard deviation of 1.78 microns and a coefficient of variation 15.55%. Thus, the woolly of the Tschiru is the finest of all animal hair. Alone for a scarf the wool is from three to five animals needed because each Tschiru only produced about 150 grams of raw wool. Therefore, the population of about one million declined drastically in the 1950s to an estimated 75,000 today. Tschirus are among the endangered species. The trade has been banned since 1977, but it still earn about 30,000 people - including children in the weaving mills - with the illegal manufacture their livelihood. Thus, an estimated 20,000 animals are hunted and killed annually.

Although it is illegal since 1975, Shatush to sell or possess, there was an extensive black market trade in shahtoosh throughout the 1990s, and the scarves were sold per piece for the equivalent of € 12,000.

Prosecution

A raid at a charity event in 1994 in New York by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service led to the summons of supermodels and celebrities who bought the scarves, as well as the first criminal proceedings for the sale of this " substance ". In April 2000, British authorities pursued a trading company from London in criminal proceedings for illegal possession of 138 scarves - which corresponds to 1000 antelope skins. Despite some successful arrests of illegal trafficking rings, there are numerous " petty criminal " with impunity, as is usually claimed, if it were pashmina or similar legal substances. A unique court of law clarification is obtained only after a laboratory test ( DNA test, measurement under an optical microscope or a scanning electron microscope ).