Dead animals on your feet

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Here is a nice article forwarded by Sumithra Krishna Das Prabhu from

www.indya.com regarding leather goods.

Stop the slaughter

indya.com presents an exclusive appearance by Maneka Gandhi (Union Minister)

I often meet vegetarians who would "die" rather than eat meat. A closer look

shows a leather watch strap/bag/shoes.

These are the excuses I then hear:

a) I am vegetarian due to health, not animal welfare reasons.

b) I buy my leather products from Khadi Gram Udyog because the animal died

naturally.

c) There is no alternative in India to leather. I can't go round in rubber

chappals or use cloth jholas.

d) The plastic alternatives are environmentally unfriendly because they come

from petrochemical products and are non biodegradable.

e) (This comes from the evolved environmentalists) I can't use cotton

because it's grown with chemical pesticides and fertilisers.

f) The animal was killed for its meat. Leather is only a by-product so there

is no harm in using it.

g) (I promise this is true) What nonsense - leather does not come from the

skin of animals.

h) I am helping poor people by buying leather products.

I think all these myths should be dealt with.

Myth: Leather is a by-product of the meat industry.

Reality: India is the largest leather manufacturer in the world. This

business running into lakhs of skins daily is not going to wait for

slaughterhouse skins alone. Leather is not an incidental product of rearing

of animals for meat.

Although the skins and hides of sheep and goats are a small source of raw

material for tanners, cattle hide and calf skin account for most footwear

and leather goods. These are derived from millions of cattle slaughtered

annually, including dairy cattle. Speciality leather is made from deer,

alligators, lizards, sharks, snakes, crocodiles, and other exotic species,

which are killed solely for this purpose.

In India very few people eat cattle meat. Many people exaggerate, for

political reasons, the amount of buffalo meat eaten by Muslims. But, all

studies show that Muslims eat mainly the same meat as Hindus - goat and

chicken meat.

Cattle in India are slaughtered primarily for their skins and very often the

meat is thrown away.

Also people eat the meat that is locally available to them. The millions of

cattle that are jam-packed into trains and trucks to go to West Bengal and

Kerala to be slaughtered are only going for the leather industry, as 90 per

cent of them die from overcrowding and starvation during the journey and

their meat cannot be eaten. Even the vultures don't touch it!

Myth: Leather comes from the skins of animals that have died of natural

causes.

Reality: This is a myth put out by the Khadi Gram Udyog. How can such a

large organisation with retail outlets in every state of India ensure a

steady supply of carcasses? Do they have people scouting all the villages

collecting the bodies of cattle and buffaloes that waste away after 20

years?

Besides, have you seen the skin of an old animal? Its hide is patched and

worn. There is no way you can produce uniform quality leather goods randomly

collecting the skins of such aged beasts. Mahatma Gandhi's Khadi Gram Udyog

has no business selling leather.

An interview conducted with the main buyers of Khadi Gram Udyog revealed

that they gave the contract for their leather supply to contractors that

supplied leather for normal footwear in the leather industry. Which means

that there was no question of using or even differentiating between cattle

killed for leather and cattle that died naturally.

All the leather in India comes from young cattle. This, in spite of a

Parliament law and state laws that forbid the killing of cattle under 14-16

years (some states say 14, others 16). Calf leather is specifically

forbidden but leather sellers advertise it openly. Which calves die

naturally?

Myth: The animals spend contented lives grazing in fields and are sent to

slaughter because they are old.

Reality: Leather is not taken from old cows but from cattle sent to

slaughter. Cattle are selectively bred and subjected to a range of cruel

procedures, including artificial insemination, artificial weaning and

feeding, dosing with antibiotics, castration, marking, and the separation of

cow and calf within a few days of birth.

As a consequence of undergoing a vicious cycle of pregnancy and lactation,

dairy cows are especially susceptible to mastitis and lameness. Once they

are sick they are killed. Their male calves are murdered in millions each

year to provide tanneries with highly valued fine grain skin, used for shoe

uppers, jackets, gloves and wallets.

Kidskin leather is from baby goats. However, the most prized skin used to

make soft suede is obtained from unborn calves, which means their mothers

are beaten to make them abort and the foetus is skinned and sold.

The natural life expectancy of a cow is 20 years, yet beef cattle are killed

at one to three years and dairy cows at three to seven years due to disease

(36 per cent), poor yield (28 per cent) and the inability to calve (36 per

cent). They are killed to make more money for their owners from the sale of

their body parts including meat and leather.

Myth: Unlike a wild fur-bearing animal, the meat (leather) producing animal

is killed humanely.

Reality: At the very least, transportation to the slaughterhouse causes

animals severe stress. Packed in cramped conditions, they may suffer heat

exhaustion, heart attacks, bruising, hunger, dehydration, and broken bones,

before reaching the slaughterhouses.

The law says that only twelve cattle can be put into one train bogey. In

reality each train carries over 44 cattle squashed together in each bogey.

The law says that only four cattle can be put in a truck. Over 75 are often

thrown into one, their limbs and tails broken to make more room.

Their noses are tied together and ten of them made to march hundreds of

miles. If one falls, its tailbones are broken and chillies put in its eyes

till it stands up again. If it dies, it is skinned on the spot.

Once in the slaughterhouse they are killed in the most crude and cruel

manner. The knives are rusty and the workers callous and untrained. Butchers

need possess no formal qualification or training. In mechanised

slaughterhouses in Andhra Pradesh, boiling water is poured on the animal and

its skin stripped while it is still alive and hanging upside down.

In Kerala, the head is smashed in with a hammer - often up to 20 blows being

given before the animal dies. Many of the butchers are children.

Myth: Unlike plastic alternatives, leather products are

environment-friendly.

Reality: Tanneries not only emit unpleasant odours, they produce a host of

pollutants - including lead, zinc, formaldehyde, dyes, and cyanide based

chemicals. And added to the equation is the devastating environmental impact

of raising livestock. Animal slurry is probably the major cause of water

pollution: cattle, sheep and other ruminants are one of the main sources of

global warming.

Methane and nitrogen in animal waste volatises to form ammonia - the single

greatest cause of acid rain; the felling of trees for livestock grazing, and

the amount of young shoots and grass eaten results in soil erosion.

Farm animals compete with us for land, water, and fuel, and consume five to

ten times as much primary plant food as people.

Turning animal hides into leather is an energy intensive and polluting

practice. The Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology states: "On

the basis of quantity of energy consumed per unit of product, the leather

manufacturing industry would be categorised with aluminium, paper, steel,

cement and petroleum manufacturing industries as a gross consumer of

energy."

"Production of leather basically involves soaking (bean house), tanning,

dyeing, drying and finishing. Over 95 per cent leather production is chrome

tainted. The effluent that must be treated is primarily related to the bean

house and tanning operations. The most difficult to treat is the effluent

from the tanning process."

All wastes containing chrome are considered hazardous. Many other pollutants

employed by the processing of leather are considered primary environment and

health risks. In terms of disposal, one would think that leather products

would be biodegradable. But the primary function for a tanning agent is to

stabilise the collagen or protein fibres so that they are no longer bio-

degradable.

If that were not enough, leather production causes serious water pollution

as well. India has so far taken a loan of Rs. 2000 crores to try and clean

the Ganges of the effluents poured into it from Kanpur's leather industries.

No success so far.

Myth: Leather is a major money earner for India. It is also a major

employer.

Reality: Don't think that you are doing social service for India by buying

leather. The leather manufacturers pay no taxes, as it is a small-scale

industry. The leather exporters who earn 1.5 billion dollars pay no taxes.

In fact the government pays them incentives to export. The people who are

involved by the leather industry are mainly on the tanning side; they flay

the skins, soak them in chemicals, et al.

Many of these people earn the lowest possible wages and die very young

because of the cyanide, chrome and other chemicals that they steep

themselves in. Compensation is not paid nor any precautions taken for their

safeties, as the leather manufacturers claim to be small scale themselves.

Every time they fall sick, which is within months of this oppressive labour,

the government foots their major medical bills and the owner of the tannery

gets himself another poor person to exploit. The happy parts of the leather

trade-the actually making of shoes and garments-is all done by machine.

Do the leather manufacturers pay for the forests that have been destroyed by

the cattle grazing on them? Do they pay for the water sources that have

dried up as a result of forest cover disappearing? No, they take an animal

that has fed on land that is called common land and denuded it.

The Government's Ministry for Wasteland Development then pays money to NGOs

for these lands to be greened again. Do the leather manufacturers pay the

Ministry? No. They make the money and India pays the bill. Which means you

pay for the enormous wealth of the leather manufacturer.

Many Western countries are increasingly turning to leather alternatives.

China, which used to be the largest leather exporter, is now the world's

largest synthetic leather exporter. Countries like Thailand are following

suit. Most European countries that used to produce leather have passed the

environmental burden to India and now merely either take the finished hide

or use synthetics.

A look at the Internet listings for leather alternative throws up more than

12,000 links for all sorts of non-cruelty, non-leather items. The

Compassionate Shopper regularly lists companies that sell non-leather shoes

for instance.

Do you want to help India's environment and join its anti-cruelty team?

First make a list of all the leather items in your life:

Watch straps, shoes, wallets, jackets, belts, drums (tablas), bags,

briefcases, hats, furniture covers, pants and other garments, cricket balls,

footballs, jewellery cases, spectacle cases, key chains, bookbinding,

lampshades, toys, gloves.

There are so many alternatives to each. Suede-like materials for garments

(both leather and suede are so silly to use in a hot country like India),

cloth wallets and bags. Canvas belts with brass buckles. Spalding

manufactures synthetic leather volleyballs, footballs and basketballs.

Cotton or spandex can replace leather gloves; synthetic fibre skin on drums

is as good. Waxed cloth and faux leather for jackets. Plastic, jute, canvas

and EKKO-a new non-polluting combination of natural and synthetic rubber are

commonly available.

The most widely purchased item is shoes. What are you looking for? Something

eye catching, water resistant, durable, allowing your feet to breathe? Who

says that these qualities can't be found in non-leather shoes?

Vegetarian shoes not only outlast leather but also require less

maintenance, as they don't have to be polished. High quality non-leather is

water-resistant and also allows the feet to breathe. Nike, Adidas and Reebok

have animal free shoes. Chlorenol (called Hydrolite in Adidas and Durabuck

in Nike) is an innovative new material that stretches round the foot with

the same flexibility as leather.

Some non-leather companies have introduced cork and hemp shoes with a

contoured cork footbed. Companies like Action Shoes and Bata say that they

have a vast line of non-leather shoes for men, women and children. Non

leather shoe shops like Rinaldis in Mumbai have the most beautiful shoes

possible.

Anyone who wants to go into collaboration with a foreign non-leather company

will find himself rich. Especially now since the West is stopping leather

import from India. Anything China can do we can do better!

Here are a few hints:

Some people complain that vinyl shoes squeak. Put a little mineral oil, hand

cream or any lubricant between the noisy surfaces.

Many patent leather shoes are in fact synthetic. Look for the man made

material label on it. Leatherette is not leather. It is high quality vinyl.

Don't wear dead animals on your feet. If the cow is your sacred animal don't

let her be killed for your needs. The wearer is responsible for the killer

and ignorance is no defence. You are the person who makes the money for the

leather industry and destroys India's environment as well.

Is your pair of shoes worth the Ganges River or the Himalayan hillsides or

your State forest sanctuary? All of them are contained in the leather that

you buy. Purchasing leather goods helps to make the rearing and killing of

over 600 million cattle, goats a year in the country a profitable business,

and maintains a demand that can be satisfied only by the taking of life.

Make an effort to find non-leather items and ask each leather shop you know

to stock non-leather goods as well. You will see how quickly the message

spreads.