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Many people reject fur because of the appalling suffering animals killed for their skin endure. But what about leather? Profits from leather sales drive the slaughter of more than 1 billion animals each year, perpetuating horrific violence towards living, feeling beings, along with water and air pollution and the destruction of land. To take down the leather industry and spare cows, we need members of the public – like you – to promise never to buy or wear leather.
Cows Are Abused and Killed for Leather
Many of the billions of cows and other animals who are killed for their skin endure the horrors of factory farming, including extreme crowding and deprivation as well as castration, branding, tail-docking, and dehorning – all without any painkillers. Because skin is the most economically important co-product of the meat industry, buying leather directly contributes to the exploitation and slaughter of sensitive animals.
A large amount of leather comes from countries such as China and India, where animal welfare laws are either non-existent or not enforced. An investigation in India found that workers break cows’ tails and rub chillis and tobacco into their eyes in order to force them to get up and walk after they collapse from exhaustion on the way to an abattoir.
Luxury brands often sell products labelled “calf leather” or “calfskin”, which means that terrified babies were torn away from their mothers shortly after birth and killed.
At abattoirs, workers routinely cut animals’ throats and skin and dismember these living, feeling beings while they’re still conscious.
You Can’t Be a Leather-Wearing Environmentalist
Did you know that animal agriculture – which includes the leather industry – is responsible for nearly one-fifth of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions? The World Bank reports that cattle ranching has caused over 80% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest since 1970. Fires set to clear land for raising cows and growing crops to feed them, along with hotter temperatures and droughts, have caused parts of the Amazon now to emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb.
The Future Is Vegan
Sustainable vegan leather made from apples, cork, corn, grapes, mushrooms, paper, pineapples, soya, or tea mimics the properties of leather without the cruelty to animals or the environmental devastation.