Who Are You Wearing? PETA India Warns That Leather Is ‘Beef for Feet’ During World Vegan Month
For Immediate Release:
10 November 2023
Contact:
Hiraj Laljani; [email protected]
Monica Chopra; [email protected]
Bengaluru – During World Vegan Month (November), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India is erecting sky-high messages in shopping areas in cities across India letting everyone know that if they wouldn’t eat beef, they shouldn’t wear leather, either. The group aims to remind shoppers that leather is made from cows, buffaloes, sheep, goats, pigs, and other animals who wanted to live.
The billboard in Bengaluru is on the Outer Ring Road, opposite Bagmane World Technology Centre.
“Buying leather supports the misery of the slaughterhouse just as eating beef does,” says PETA India Manager of Fashion, Media, and Celebrity Projects Monica Chopra. “PETA India encourages everyone never to buy the skin of any animal and to choose compassionate vegan leather instead – for the sake of animals, the environment, and human life.”
Cows and buffaloes used for leather in India are crammed into trucks so crowded that many are trampled, gored, or suffocated to death. At the slaughterhouse, animals with broken bones are often dragged inside and their throats are slit in full view of others awaiting the same fate. Cattle killed for beef and leather in India largely come from the dairy industry. They are either male calves, who cannot produce milk, or females whose milk production has waned. An estimated 2 million Indian cattle are smuggled into Bangladesh where their skins are turned into leather, too. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India also imports “cow hides and skins, including cow calf”.
A “Pulse of the Fashion Industry” report, published by the Global Fashion Agenda in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group and Sustainable Apparel Coalition, concluded that leather is the most polluting material in fashion. It is terrible for humans, too. Tannery workers often suffer from cancer and skin and respiratory illnesses. According to the World Health Organization, in the tanning region of Bangladesh, 90% of workers die before the age of 50 as a result of exposure to toxic chemicals. Most of the world’s leather is produced in developing nations where environmental and labour welfare norms may be laxer than in the West.
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 the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
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