For Immediate Release:
3 July 2003
Contact:
Anuradha Sawhney 98201 22602
Delhi - Free postcards, featuring the Batgirl Alicia Silverstone asking diners to "Go Fake for the Animal's Sake", have suddenly cropped up in more than 200 of the finest bars, discos, health clubs and coffee chains in New Delhi and Mumbai. The cards, with their pull-no-punches pro-pleather message, are courtesy of People for the Ethical Treatment Animals (PETA) and have been placed on racks in the various establishments by Go Card, who recently launched operations in India.
PETA is hoping that club goers will clear their wardrobes of leather shoes and clothing, and put the compassion into fashion by opting to wear trendier, hipper fabrics. Alicia's studded black cap and zippered vest featured in the postcard, are tailor-made of synthetic leather, or "pleather".
Alicia is not "clueless" about the horrors of the leather industry. PETA's investigation of the trade in cattle, goats, sheep and other animals reveals beatings, mutilation and a miserable death at the hands of transporters and abattoir workers. After they are sold, many animals are marched for days and are given neither a sip of water nor a bite to eat. When they collapse from exhaustion, handlers twist and break their tails or rub tobacco or hot chilli peppers in their eyes. Most are crammed, in hideously overcrowded conditions, into lorries. By the time they reach the abattoir, many bones have been broken. The killers saw dull blades back and forth across the animals' throats.
Designers like Hemant Trevedi, Stella McCartney, Geetanjali Kashyap, and Rajesh Pratap Singh are some of the designers who are opting to pleather their creations. Pleather now represents the most daring and cutting edge textile usage available and its popularity has increased quickly due to its less expensive price, ease of care, versatility, and animal friendly existence.
'Fashion should be fun, not grisly!' says PETA chief functionary Anuradha Sawhney. 'Every time you choose to buy a leather bag, jacket or leather shoes, you sentence an animal to a lifetime of suffering'
These post cards ask consumers to make the stylish and compassionate choice and let cows, bulls, and buffalos keep their skin, by saying no to leather. A few of the establishments where PETA's cards are available are Buzz, Twisters, Qwiky's, M 52, Pebble Street, Bangkok 52, Power House Health Club and RPM in New Delhi and Rain, Fire 'n Ice, Strike Ten, Hakone and J 49 in Mumbai.
For more information and to view the Go Cards, please visit www.PETAIndia.com.
