The cruelty of the leather trade exposed

Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images

** From the PETA Australia e-Newsletter, words by Ingrid E Newkirk **

Each year, more than a million cows are illegally smuggled from India across the border into Bangladesh, where they have their throats cut while they are still conscious.

Many of them have suffered all their lives in the dairy industry and can no longer produce the desired levels of milk. Others are bullocks who had been forced to pull heavy carts loaded with sugarcane, bricks or other items all their lives.

Many people are surprised to learn about the ghastly story behind the leather used in shoes, gloves and furniture here in Australia.

PETA’s recent investigation revealed that cows suffered from hunger, exhaustion or open wounds and injuries sustained during the gruelling journey that often covers thousands of miles and is filled with beatings and merciless abuse. Some cows had their tails broken and tobacco and hot chillies rubbed into their eyes in order to force them to keep moving.

PETA Australia’s Director of Campaigns, Jason Baker, has witnessed the cruelty firsthand. “When the cows eventually reach animal markets in Dhaka [the capital of Bangladesh], most are little more than walking skeletons”, he says. “Many are so weak that they have to be dragged to their slaughter. Some of them are skinned alive in front of other terrified animals.”

Many consumers have already turned their backs on leather after seeing the cruelty that PETA and their affiliates have helped expose. But we have to do more to help cows in India. Your support today will strengthen PETA’s increasingly successful work to promote cruelty-free fashion and help save cows’ and other animals’ lives.

If you haven’t done so yet, please also visit their website and download PETA’s cruelty-free shopping guide. This wonderful new guide will make your shopping easier – and will help countless cows, sheep, rabbits and other animals who are abused for their skins by the fashion industry. Then share the guide with your friends and family and help them save animals and acquire a more humane wardrobe. You can also take action by writing letters to the editors of newspapers and magazines regarding the cruelty of the global fashion industry.

Fashion should never be cruel. Together, we can end the terror of forced marches, routine abuse and bloody knives, which are the foundation of the leather industry!