LEATHER A GLOBAL KILLER: So many people wearing and carrying Leather Goods why don't they care to find out where it comes from?

Leather can be made from cows, pigs, goats, and sheep; exotic animals such as alligators, ostriches, and kangaroos; and even dogs and cats, who are slaughtered for their meat and skin in China, which exports their skins around the world. Because leather is normally not labeled, you never really know where (or whom) it came from.Most leather comes from developing countries such as India and China, where animal welfare laws are either non-existent or not enforced. In India, a PETA investigation found that workers break cows' tails and rub chili peppers and tobacco into their eyes in order to force them to get up and walk after they collapse from exhaustion on the way to the slaughterhouse.In the U.S., many of the millions of cows and other animals who are killed for their skin endure the horrors of factory farming—extreme crowding and deprivation as well as castration, branding, tail-docking, and dehorning—all without any painkillers. At slaughterhouses, animals routinely have their throats cut and some are even skinned and dismembered while they are still conscious.Check out this video on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hZh_zrV6oY&feature=youtube_gdata_playerBuying leather directly contributes to factory farms and slaughterhouses because skin is the most economically important byproduct of the meat industry. Leather is also no friend of the environment, as it shares responsibility for all the environmental destruction caused by the meat industry as well as the pollution caused by the toxins used in tanning.With every pair of leather shoes that you buy, you sentence an animal to a lifetime of suffering. Instead, you can choose from hundreds of styles of nonleather shoes, clothing, belts, bags, and wallets. Check out PETA's cruelty-free clothing guide for great tips on where to find fashionable yet compassionate clothing. Fashion should be fun, not fatal!See Video and Full Article @ http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/leather-industry.aspxHell for Leather by John, Vegan Views 86 (Autumn 2000)Fur. We've all heard about and been saddened by the conditions endured by animals imprisoned on fur farms. We've all seen and been sickened by the photographs of innocent animals caught in steel-jaw leghold traps, screaming and writhing in pain, limbs crushed to splintered pulp. The case against fur is a powerful one. The case against leather on the other hand is, at first glance, seemingly less convincing."Leather is just a by product of the slaughter industry", "the animal has already been killed for its meat so you might as well make use of its skin", these well-worn arguments only serve to give credence to the notion that leather isn't cruel.Also of course, fur bearing animals have the advantage of being infinitely more aesthetically appealing to the eye than most of their leather-providing counterparts.But I ask you is wearing the skin of one sentient, ensouled being any less of a moral abomination than wearing the fur of another?Leather falls into two categories 'farm animal leather' and 'exotic leather'Leather is a lucrative money-spinner for slaughterhouse proprietors, both here - and abroad.Many leather garments and most of the shoes sold in the UK today originate from the Far East, where animal welfare - if even considered - is a low priority, and methods of slaughter can be appallingly cruel.In the obtaining of exotic leather such as lizard, caiman etc. Even crocodile and alligator (they paralyse them first), and of course snake skin, live dismemberment mutilation is commonplace.Take snake skin for example, by and large the method of 'slaughter' is thus. The captured snake (they're taken from the wild) is suspended by a wire or rope, then with a razor sharp knife it is quite literally skinned alive. What remains of the snake is discarded and takes many minutes, sometimes even many hours to die. [This is due to the ability of reptiles to withstand low blood pressure and oxygen levels.]Reptiles have a central nervous system, they feel pain, this is not in doubt. Clifford Warwick says in his excellent book Reptile: Misunderstood, Mistreated and Mass-Marketed: "If reptiles are to be killed by physical means... then it has to involve complete and rapid destruction of the brain, otherwise they are very likely to suffer enormously and for a long time before dying".To be sentient and to experience being skinned alive, or beheaded, or having one's limbs cut off - retaining full consciousness for some time afterwards, one cannot begin to imagine the suffering involved. (It's a hell of a price to pay for the sake of a ridiculous fashion item, watch strap or belt!)Leather has always been the 'poor relation' of the animal rights movement, never arousing the passions that hunting, vivisection, live exports etc do. But there is a strong moral issue to be addressed here and there is also much good that can be done.Most people will refuse to buy fur, ... but most of those same people will happily buy leather. Why? Immorality? Is it not that the anti-leather arguments put forward up to now are too week and too few? Why should this be when there is cruelty and suffering involved in parts of the leather industry that match and surpass the worst excesses of any of the more popular causes?Whilst the pragmatic answer, as always, is education and providing viable alternatives, it has to be realised that in all such matters unless you stir the emotions you won't get a result and a whole new set of stronger and more appealing arguments are needed for this issue, that has deserved better of 'us' for a very long time.Source: http://www.veganviews.org.uk/vv86/vv86leather.html

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Replies

Krishna Kalki April 14, 2013 at 8:24pm

If you want to lead a spiritual life then get animal leather off your skin..or the other option is to live in a Zoo because you have dressed yourself as an animal
- This reply was deleted.
  - Michael April 14, 2013 at 8:56pm
    
    spiritual life really does matter if you wear clothing of suffering and pain.
    
    However I see you point in response to KK.
    - This reply was deleted.
      - Michael April 14, 2013 at 10:36pm
        
        same argument could be used in the idea of what are we gonna do with billions upon billions of animals saved when, lets suppose . earth and its dwellers turn vegetarian.
        
        When we stop eating animals, we will stop their skin used for clothing and luxuries; simply we wont have this problem. until then, we simply don't buy such products and less and less we use them the faster animal agriculture and its byproducts will disappear.
This reply was deleted.
- Michael April 14, 2013 at 9:00pm
  
  I think this topic is more complex than just skin of cows. I think I can think of many more animals murdered for their skin only, won't you agree ?
April 14, 2013 at 6:09pm

...So True....No Animal Skins Around Me.....There Is Always An Alternative....If You Want It......xx....
Krishna Kalki April 14, 2013 at 5:45pm

Actually people who wear or carry leather belong to the Zoo as they no intelligence to think and find our where and how the leather was obtained.
Krishna Kalki April 14, 2013 at 5:15pm

I do not wear any leather at all ...no leather belt ..no leather wallet...no leather shoes and I carry no leather bags....so be it.
Women wearing high heal long leather boots and carrying leather handbags should think where the leather comes.
Killing animals, selling animals skins and wearing animal skins is creating heavy karma.
How would you like your skin to be pealed off you .. Not a pleasant sight is it ?
Krishna Kalki April 14, 2013 at 5:21am

Leather jackets, wallets, handbags and belts are some of the common goods that pee wear or carry but do they know where it really comes from?
All beings should be against animal killing and not wear or carry any leather goods.

I myself do not carry or wear any leather goods. The shoes that I wear are vegan shoes yet so many beings wear leather shoes... seems they have no compassion for animals.
- Michael > Krishna Kalki April 14, 2013 at 2:02pm
  
  I don't have single leather item in my closet. around my place, even refuse to sit on such couches and car seats.......................
  
  also, for your information , it takes a deadly cocktail of chemicals to preserve animal skin. It amazes me how so many environmentalists scream against all kind of chemicals in use in our every day lives yet wear leather which was processed with them.....................