Mollusks are animals, too, but many people seem to forget that. And they're being tortured in order to create pearls.
A pearl is an ulcer that is created in a mollusk by an irritant. In pearl farms all over the world, hundreds of thousands of helpless mollusks are being "cultivated," meaning slices of tissue from other tortured mollusks are inserted into the mollusks' own tissue to cause the irritant and eventually, pearls.
The mollusks form a sac around the irritant and then they secrete nacre (the crystalline substance that gives pearls their luster) around it. As the layers of nacre build, the pearl grows. The pearl grows due to stress occurring to the mollusks.
In order for the mollusks to experience the stress needed to properly grow the pearl, they are suspended in water in a cage, washing their shells, moving them around in different waters, and raising and lowering their cages to subject them to changing of the water temperatures.
With modern-day technology and advancements, there really is no necessity for pearls, when we can easily create safe pearl imitations. The people doing this to the mollusks have no empathy for creatures and they need to be held accountable for their terrible actions. There needs to be recognization of this awful problem, and with enough support, I hope to put a stop to this animal cruelty.
