Written by PETA
If you haven't seen the PETA “Year In Review” video that was made for our annual New Year staff party yet, you should check it out. It’s a great snapshot of just a few of our accomplishments from 2006, and when I saw it at the party, I knew we had to get it on the Web ASAP. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong ... As it turns out, our legal department has all these issues with us using music without permission—yadda yadda yadda. So we had to replace the song that was originally in it. Luckily my buddy Coulter is all musical and stuff, and he gave us a great song that I think works better than the original anyway.
Anyway, here it is: PETA’s 2006 staff party video*:
*Warning: this video does not contain gratuitous nudity. Sorry.
Everyone I've talked to who was at the Marc Bouwer show says that it was just amazing. It was full of celebrities, the media loved it, and Marc’s animal-free designs were beyond anything that’s ever been seen.
I promised you video, so here it is:
This was the first ever collection presented by a designer of this caliber who is 100 percent cruelty-free. Totally awesome.
Pretty much every media outlet was there, including AP, Reuters, The New York Times, and, well, everybody else who is anybody. These are a few of the comments from the press coverage:
"Texans who would rather wear faux fur—yes, there are more than you think—would have loved the Marc Bouwer show. Known for creating gorgeous red-carpet gowns, the designer unveiled real-looking faux chinchilla, tiger, astrakhan and mink furs.""With its “Imitation is life” tagline and PETA-approved cruelty-free fabrics, Marc Bouwer’s calculated opening looks—a series of gasp-inducing, and yet entirely faux fur coats—signaled a powerful statement that resonated throughout the remainder of his collection: the only skin you need to look glamorous in today’s fashion world is your own. "Marc Bouwer's collection was exquisite. The dresses were the highlight of fashion week thus far. It will be a feat of talent to out-do Marc's dresses."
My pals Jayasimha and Anuradha from PETA India have been busy little beavers this week, making sure the attendees of the Indian International Leather Fair (IILF) get an earful from the animal protection community, and they’ve held demos and press conferences of their own outside.
According to PETA India, 90 percent of all the leather exported from there comes from illegal slaughterhouses, which are completely unregulated and where the cruelty is beyond imagination. Despite the documented atrocities occurring daily at these hellholes, the Indian Council for Leather Exports says that it is premature to ask its members to source leather only from legal slaughterhouses. Wow, premature to stop breaking the law . . .
The kicker here is that nearly all Indian leather is exported overseas where it is made into everything from leather jackets and gloves to shoes and steering wheel covers, and it is almost always labeled as “Made in” the country where the final product is finished. So if you buy any leather products, there’s a decent chance that it came from India. And no, leather isn’t a byproduct of the meat industry—far from it, especially in India, where many of the cows are killed exclusively for their skins.
Sorry to get all preachy and heavy-handed in the blog, but this is just beyond the pale and it has to stop. Please don’t buy any leather and tell you friends and family to do the same.
Sermon over.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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