SKINNED IS SKINNED: There Is No Correct Leather!

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" SKINNED IS SKINNED: There Is No Correct Leather " !

 

 

 

The following piece about cowskin comes from Jackie

Giulano, Ph.D.

It was posted on the Environment News Service.

Giuliano is a writer

and teacher in Seattle and can be reached at

jackie.

 

 

Skinned is Skinned: There Is No Correct Leather

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

 

 

For as long as space endures

And for as long as living beings remain,

Until then may I too abide

To dispel the misery of the world.

-- Favorite prayer of Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the

14th Dalai Lama

 

 

Many people labor under the erroneous assumption that

leather products

are acceptable because they are a necessary byproduct

of the food

industry.

Even if you choose not to eat meat, some believe that

since the animals

are

going to die anyway, why not use the products rather

than let them go

to

waste.

 

The reality of the leather trade trashes these

comfortable notions.

Leather

production may be the cruelest, most unnecessary of

all evils

perpetrated

upon our animal neighbors, causing more suffering than

any other

practice.

 

Meat from factory farmed cow, sheep, pig and goat

industries kills

7,000

to 8,000 people or more each year in the U.S. alone,

and millions are

made

sick from eating contaminated meat.

 

Environmentally, meat production results in life

threatening pollution

in

water

supplies around the world from a buildup of nitrates

in the groundwater

which

is tainted by runoff polluted with fecal matter.

 

The cruelty of the slaughtering process is well

established. Many

animals

are butchered alive due to inefficient processes for

rendering them

unconscious before they are killed.

 

More and more people are realizing that eating so much

meat has been

compromising the health of an already unhealthy

population for decades.

Even the federal government has revised its food

recommendations to

lessen

the amount of meat recommended in a diet, amidst great

opposition from

two

of the most powerful lobbies in the country - the Meat

Advisory Board

and the

American Dairy Council.

 

Meat tested in supermarkets has been found to contain

measurable levels

of

the growth hormones, antibiotics and other drugs used

to raise cattle.

 

People in developing countries, where cancer rates are

historically

low,

begin

to develop the cancers found in the West when fast

food burger chains

set up

shop.

 

When you take into account the horrific cruelty of the

meat production

process,

the huge environmental and health impacts of raising

and eating meat,

and the

pharmacopeia of drugs that make their way into the

meat, you might

think that

it would be an easy decision to stay away from meat

and leather

products. Yet

this is probably one of the most difficult and

emotionally charged

decisions

a

person can make. The attachment to meat is rooted in

our profound

separation

from the natural world and the cycles of life.

 

Leather is a symbol of success and affluence in the

United States.

Having the

means to wear the skin of a being that has been killed

is a deeply

rooted

sign

of power over the natural world. Leather symbolizes

our distance from

nature

as well as the cruelty of its production.

 

Today's meat industry is not sustainable on its own,

and it relies on

skin

sales

to remain profitable. The skin of a slaughtered animal

accounts for 55

percent

of the value of the products of that animal other than

meat. Leather

isn't a

harmless slaughterhouse byproduct. The meat industry

relies on skin

sales

to stay in business.

 

So where does that leather in your sofa or car come

from? It takes the

skins

of many cows to make one sofa. That leather from cows

comes from cows

raised for both beef and milk. Cows raised for beef

are fed an

unnatural diet

chicken feces, rendered remains of other animals,

high-bulk grains, and

other fillers, including sawdust, until they weigh

1,000 to 1,200

pounds.

 

Dairy cows may have it worse. Most people never think

about it, but the

only

way to get milk year round from a cow is to keep her

constantly

pregnant.

Some farmers inject cows with synthetic growth

hormones to increase

production. Once cows give birth, their calves are

traumatically taken

away within days. The females are added to the dairy

herd, and the

males are chained in tiny, dark crates to be raised

for veal. When veal

calves are slaughtered at about 16 weeks old, they are

often too sick

or crippled to walk.

 

A surprising amount of leather comes from India, a

place where the cow

is

supposedly revered. International retailers routinely

use skins from

cows

slaughtered in India, although retailers Nordstroms,

Gap Inc. and its

subsidiaries, Old Navy, and Banana Republic have

agreed to stop selling

products from India and China based on information

supplied by People

for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

 

India's Council for Leather Exports agreed last year

to address the

problem,

but it will take some time before they can effect

major changes.

 

Leather is not the environmentally friendly product

that the industry

has

suggested. The adverse environmental and health

impacts of the leather

industry are huge. Animal skin is turned into finished

leather by the

use of

many dangerous

mineral salts, formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and

cyanide based

oils

and dyes. These chemicals prevent the leather from

being naturally

biodegradable as the industry claims. Leather products

can last

thousands of years and the toxic chemicals with which

they are infused

leach into the environment during that time. Leather

pieces found in

Northern

Germany were estimated to be 12,000 years old, dating

from the

Neolithic and

European Bronze Ages!

 

People who have worked in and lived near tanneries

have died of cancer

from

groundwater contaminated by the toxic chemicals used

to process and dye

the leather. A New York State Department of Health

study found that

more

than half of all testicular cancer victims worked in

tanneries.

 

Huge amounts of fossil fuels are consumed in livestock

and leather

production,

while plastic wearable items account for only a

fraction of one percent

of

the petroleum used in the United States. The amount of

energy consumed

by the

leather industry ranks among the paper, steel, cement

and petroleum

manufacturing industries.

 

Sports use huge amounts of leather. It takes 3,000

cows to supply the

National Football League (NFL) with enough leather for

a year's supply

of footballs! It takes the leather of 3.8 steers to

make the 72

footballs

used in every NFL SuperBowl alone.

 

Non-leather sports equipment is readily available.

Finding alternatives

to

leather is easy. I have non-leather shoes, hiking

boots, belts, and

bags

that wear, look and feel like leather. I even have

drums without skin

heads.

The links below will tell you how to find them.

 

Species that are hunted and killed specifically for

their skins

include:

zebras,

bison, water buffalos, boars, deer, kangaroos,

elephants, eels, sharks,

dolphins, seals, walruses, frogs, crocodiles, lizards,

and snakes. Some

of

the leather

from these animals that makes it to retail outlets is

obtained

illegally.

 

Here are some other horrific examples of imported

leather goods:

 

Like those soft, kid leather gloves? Kid goats may be

boiled alive to

make

them, and the skins of purposely aborted calves and

lambs are

considered

especially luxurious.

 

Snakes and lizards are often skinned alive because of

the widespread

belief

that live flaying imparts suppleness to the finished

leather.

 

Like that exotic and expensive ostrich skin wallet?

Farmers strip

ostriches

of their feathers before slaughtering them by pulling

feathers from

their

sockets with pliers or shaving them off with electric

shears. The " New

York Times " reported that a slaughterer in California

said it took him

" two hours of violent struggle to kill a single

ostrich. "

 

Like that alligator skin handbag? PETA has observed

workers in

alligator

factory farms smashing animals over the head with

aluminum baseball

bats and slicing through their spinal cords with steel

chisels and

hammers.

Some alligators remained conscious and in agony for up

to two hours.

 

It is so easy for us to break the chain of separation

from nature that

has

allowed such cruelty to exist. All we have to do is

stop buying

leather.

 

We must decide that our identity is based on who we

are, what we care

about, what we want to be remembered for, and what we

stand for, not

how many creatures died to suit our needs.

 

It is time for the rationalizations to end - and along

with them, the

suffering.

 

RESOURCES

 

1. Finding alternatives to leather is easy. Visit the

PETA website at:

http://www.cowsarecool.com/alt.html and find links to

many sellers of

non-leather products.

 

2. Learn more about the cruelties of factory farms

from Farm Sanctuary

at:

http://www.farmsanctuary.org/ and the Humane Farming

Association at:

http://www.hfa.org/.

 

3. Read about the Environmental Protection Agency's

animal waste

management

activities at:

http://www.epa.gov/region09/cross_pr/animalwaste/action.html.

 

 

4. Get help changing your diet and lifestyle from

Earthsave at:

http://www.earthsave.org/ and the Vegetarian Resource

Group at:

http://www.vrg.org/.

 

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher

in Seattle. He can

be

found wondering how he will explain all the cruelty in

the world to his

new

son. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions

to him at

jackie.}