This Hat Killed 200 Million Birds Every Year
During the Victorian period, the lust for rare plumage reached staggering heights.
Humans have used feathers in fashion since we first learned to accessorize. But during the Victorian period, plumage hunting reached staggering heights, such that by the end of the 19th century, over 200 million birds were killed in the United States every year to keep up with demand. For an affluent Victorian woman, there was no better status symbol than a rare feather (or ideally, feathers) in your hat.
How did the situation get so out of control, and how did it spark a powerful conservation movement—one whose organizations, from the US National Audubon Society to the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, are still active today?
Shocking. Perhaps cats have received too much blame for decimating bird populations...