Traffic stopped and inquisitive onlookers stood by when PETA India recently held a unique protest in which Bangalore activists lay in a row of open coffins with a banner placed across them stating, “Don’t Be Caught Dead in Leather”, to show that dead skin is never fashionable and to raise awareness about how animals are treated before they are turned into leather shoes, bags and other products.

Buying leather directly contributes to the misery of the abattoir. The vast majority of animals used for their skin suffer horrors such as painful mutilations, deprivation of all that is natural and important to them, physical abuse and cruel treatment during transport and slaughter.

In India, even the most basic animal protection laws are ignored in the production of leather. Animals are regularly crowded onto lorries in such high numbers that many become severely injured; they are often gouged by horns and crushed, and many of them die en route. At most abattoirs, animals are dragged inside and cut open – often with dirty, blunt knives in full view of one another – on floors covered with faeces, blood, guts and urine, with some animals skinned and dismembered while they are still conscious.

Leather tanneries also wreak havoc on the environment, and their pollution has been linked to cancer, respiratory infections and other illnesses in humans. See our World Environment Day feature for more information.

Synthetic leather and other non-animal options such as cotton, jute and others are available at just about any major shoe or clothing shop. You just have to ask for the non-leather variety. Kindness is that simple.