PETA India Founder to Be ‘Skinned Alive’ in Mumbai in Protest Against Cow & Buffalo Butchery for Shoes, Bags
For Immediate Release:
21 March 2025
Contact:
Atharva Deshmukh; [email protected]
Hiraj Laljani; [email protected]
Mumbai – Shoppers and passersby in Mumbai will be met with a shocking sight on Friday, as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India founder Ingrid Newkirk will be gruesomely “skinned alive” by a butcher as she protests that “We are all someones, not somethings.” The powerful demonstration—happening in front of a massive banner featuring a slaughterhouse scene with the words “Relate to Their Fate”—will deliver the message that cows, buffaloes, and other animals exploited for leather suffer fear and pain and fight for their lives, just as any humans would, and that humans must respect them and not reduce them to accessories.
Where: In front of Campus shoe store, (just a landmark, no relation to the choice of location for the protest or the protest itself) 3R5P+WPH, at the intersection of SV Road, Linking Road, and Turner Road, Bandra West, Mumbai 400050
When: Friday, 21 March, 12 noon sharp
“Every leather bag and shoe is made from the skin of someone who loved their family, valued their life, and didn’t want to die,” says Newkirk. “PETA India encourages everyone to choose only items made from beautiful vegan materials.”
Cows and buffaloes are fiercely protective mothers who exhibit complex social bonds and experience empathy for other members of their herd. Cows have excellent memories and can navigate and remember mazes quite well. When used for leather, these animals are often crammed into vehicles in such large numbers that their bones break. Slaughterhouse workers cut the throats of those who survive this ordeal in full view of other animals before dismembering and skinning them, often while they’re still conscious. Run-off from leather tanneries contaminates rivers and streams, harming all life there. Working in tanneries has also been linked to cancer, respiratory infections, and other illnesses in humans.
Vegan leather and other animal-friendly options are available nationwide in nearly all major shoe and clothing shops. The global “PETA-Approved Vegan” certification authenticates handbags, shoes, clothing, accessories, furniture, and home decor items made from vegan materials rather than animals’ body parts such as leather, silk, wool, fur, and feathers. Over 1000 companies worldwide are using the “PETA-Approved Vegan” logo to enable socially conscious consumers in India and elsewhere to identify vegan products at a glance while shopping.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow PETA India on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
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