Down parkas. Designer handbags. Winter boots. Every Friday after Thanksgiving, crowds barge into stores, elbows flying, desperate to snag the season’s “must-have” deals. Even as more of us shop online—and Black Friday sales creep closer to Halloween—the desire for a deal persists.

Here’s a thought: What if our shopping reflected the true spirit of the season?

Let’s transform Black Friday into “Free the Animals” Friday—a day to shop with compassion and ensure our purchases don’t hurt the planet or anyone else. Because no matter how good the deal seems, when animals are used for fashion, they’re the ones who pay the highest price.

Animal skin (like leather), wool, feathers and other animal-derived “materials” pollute the environment and harm animals. Inside slaughterhouses, for example, cows—gentle, curious individuals who form friendships, grieve losses and remember kindness and cruelty—are branded, mutilated and killed so that their flesh can be stolen. In some cases, they’re still conscious when workers begin to skin them.

Then, tanneries soak cows’ skin in toxic chemicals, such as formaldehyde, chromium and coal-tar derivatives, to prevent dead flesh from decomposing. These poisons leach into nearby rivers and soil, contaminating water supplies and sickening the communities and animals in nature downstream. It should come as no surprise that, according to the groundbreaking Pulse of the Fashion Industry report—by the nonprofit Global Fashion Agenda and The Boston Consulting Group—animal-derived “materials” are the most environmentally damaging in all of fashion.

Sheep are gentle, sensitive beings who feel pain and fear. Left alone, they’d grow only enough fleece to protect themselves. But because there’s profit in their wool and skins, they’re bred and exploited. Shearers, paid by volume, rush through the job—slashing skin, tails and teats, then roughly sewing wounds shut without pain relief. PETA entities’ investigations across the U.S. and Australia have exposed rampant abuse: workers punching, kicking and mutilating sheep, even beating lambs with hammers or breaking their necks. And in Australia, lambs endure mutilations like mulesing, tail docking, ear hole-punching and castration, all without painkillers.

Purchasing anything containing stolen feathers fuels animal agriculture, in which farmers profit off every body part. A PETA investigation into the world’s largest ostrich slaughter companies revealed that young ostriches were restrained and electrically stunned and then their throats were slit before workers ripped feathers from their still-warm bodies.

Fashion is evolving. Just as fur is dead, taking something that belongs to an animal and making it into a garment is archaic cruelty. Innovative designers are embracing state-of-the-art materials made from pineapple leaves, apple peels, cactus, cork, mushrooms and even grape skins. These vegan leathers look and feel luxurious, last for years and come without suffering or environmental destruction.

“Free the Animals” Friday invites everyone to shop with heart. So please, before you make a purchase, pause for a moment. Ask where that “must-have” jacket or pair of boots really came from. Picture the individual whose skin, feather or hair was taken from and choose kindness.

Every compassionate purchase moves us closer to a world where animals aren’t stripped of their skins and other body parts for fleeting deals and trends. So this holiday season, let’s wear our values as proudly as our winter coats. And remember: Compassion will never go out of style.

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Rebecca Libauskas is a staff writer for the PETA Foundation, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.

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