Introduction

Animals are a much used and largely invisible constituent in business. A wide swathe of industries and sectors rely on animals and animal derived products in their manufacturing supply chains. Whilst food is only the most obvious, animals are used in a multiplicity of ways that go farther than perhaps many realise – from leather and down, to the animal fats and musks in cosmetics and the use of animal body parts in traditional medicine, to the use of animal enzymes in medicine and biotechnology.