Campaign Will Focus on Industry's Animal Cruelty
For Immediate Release:
January 26, 2000
Contact:
Jason Baker 98201 22602
Chennai -- The suffering and cruelty that cattle secretly endure in the production of leather goods will be the focus of a protest by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which will launch a worldwide boycott of leather products this week as merchants converge in Chennai for the International Leather Fair.
Carrying a sign reading, "Keep my family off your feet--don't buy leather," a PETA member dressed in a cow costume will lead animal rights activists in the protest.
Date Time Place
Tuesday, February 1 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. sharp International Leather Fair, Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium (main entrance), on Raja Muthiah Road (Sydenhams Road), Periamet
In India--the largest manufacturer of leather in the world--it is technically illegal to kill healthy, young cattle, so unscrupulous dealers often deliberately maim healthy animals. Workers may break animals' legs so that they can be declared fit for slaughter. Cattle are tied together with ropes through their nostrils and beaten mercilessly in forced "death marches" over hundreds of kilometers in searing heat. During the marches, cattle collapse from hunger and exhaustion, but handlers force them along by snapping the bones in their tails and rubbing tobacco and chilies into their eyes.
Cattle are crammed on top of each other into lorries and endure long, hot trips to slaughterhouses in Mumbai, Kerala, Karnataka, and a few other states where mass slaughter is legal. Border guards are known to take bribes to allow overloaded lorries of cattle to move illegally into slaughtering states. The animals fall and crush one another on the lorries because of overcrowding, and many die from suffocation and horn gouges before reaching the slaughterhouse. Once inside, their throats are slit in full view of other animals. Some have their legs hacked off while still conscious or suffer the agony of being skinned alive.
"India's leather industry is perhaps the cruelest in the world," says PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk. "Cotton and canvas are cruelty-free. Before buying leather, remember that cows did not give up that skin willingly." PETA reports that pleather, a fake leather, is now "the" choice for shoes, bags, and jackets in the West and can be seen on stars like Paul McCartney, Steven Seagal, and Woody Harrelson.
For more information, please visit our Web site at www.PETAIndia.com.
