Leather: depriving cows of their skin

Whilst using the fur of various animals such as mink, fox, and chinchilla is no longer as common a practice as it once was due to the quantity of information available about the suffering caused by the fur industry, leather continues to be in high demand and extensive use, its main uses being in the manufacture of footwear, jackets, handbags, seating, etc. Rarely do we question the fact that leather also comes from the skin of an animal, normally a cow (although it can also come from oxen, pigs, horses...), which has been tanned and treated to avoid decomposition and obtain the desired colour.

If 'leather' isn’t rejected like other animal’s skins (mink, chinchilla, etc) its because we habitually consider it as a by-product of the flesh industry. In reality, leather is no by-product: cows are exploited for their milk, flesh and skin and the multimillion pound leather industry would sustain itself even if the other abuses were to end tomorrow (just as the pelt industry continues to sustain itself today).

Pelts

During 'fur' production the animals, whether raised in cages or trapped in the wild, tend to be skinned alive. Approximately 35 animals are killed and skinned to make a single coat and the fur industry currently kills around 30 million animals a year.
The use of fur is now widely rejected due to public awareness of the suffering and deaths it caused. However, we need to apply those same arguments for the rejection of any item of clothing made from animal skins, since every case involves someone else’s death.

Curiously, the main argument used by those who defend such practices is that the animals raised for fur and leather production are equal to those raised for meat production, where conditions for the animals are the same or worse. For us this only demonstrates the need for rejection of all areas of animal exploitation.