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What's Wrong With Leather?

Leather Is Bad for Animals

Leather is an integral part of the livestock trade. Leather sales help keep slaughterhouses in business and the meat industry profitable. Most of the millions of cows, pigs, sheep and other animals who are slaughtered for their skins endure the horrors of factory farming - overcrowding, deprivation of all that is natural to them and unanaesthetised castration, branding, tail-docking and dehorning. At the end of their miserable lives, their throats are slit, and they are hung upside-down and bled to death.

Leather Is Bad for Human Health

Mordants and other chemicals often used to treat leather are linked to nervous disorders, asthma, premature death, gynaecological disorders, weakness, dizziness, headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, constipation, skin and respiratory infections, cancer and other serious illnesses. According to an investigation by the New York State Department of Health, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and other agencies, those who work in tanneries may be greatly increasing their risk of testicular cancer. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in an area near one Kentucky leather tannery, the incidence of leukaemia was five times the national average.

Leather Is Bad for the Environment

Often, animal skins used for leather are kept from biodegrading by using a variety of dangerous substances, including mineral salts (chromium, aluminium, iron and zirconium), formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives and various oils and dyes, some of which are cyanide-based. All waste containing chromium is considered hazardous by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other bodies.

In an attempt to appear environmentally conscious, some tanneries are now trying to make improvements, but even if tanneries did not create any pollution, leather would still be bad for the environment. Jeffery Bonello, a spokesperson for Eagle Ottawa Leather Company of Grand Haven, Michigan, the largest supplier of leather to automakers, once said, 'The last thing we want is people thinking we're burning down rain forests for cattle just to put leather in big sport-utes'. But consider this: Nearly half of all water used in the US is used to raise animals for meat and leather! According to the EPA, factory farms are the biggest source of pollution of rivers, streams and lakes. In December 1997, the US Senate Agricultural Committee released a report that stated that animals raised for food and leather produce 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population - without the benefit of waste-treatment systems. A Scripps Howard synopsis of the report stated, 'Catastrophic cases of pollution, sickness, and death are occurring in areas where livestock operations are concentrated'.

For more information on leather production, visit CowsAreCool.com.

In comparison, faux leather made by Ultrafabrics has, according to the company's Web site, 'features to protect the environment like a 100% biodegradable backcloth, no plasticizers, no stabilizers, no adhesives, extensive recycling in the manufacturing process-and no need for potentially toxic after-care'.

Cruelty in Overdrive

Car companies hype up leather as desirable when, in fact, an ever-growing number of celebrities, wealthy people and consumers all over the world are demanding non-leather interiors. Many are offended that car companies assume that those with the means to buy their products would support cruelty and, even worse, that these companies are touting violence as luxurious.

Car companies are using and pushing leather on consumers because these days, it is cheap - just as fur is - and because it is a way to get consumers to give them more money. A few years ago, a leather package added $895 to the sticker price of a 1999 Mercury Cougar V6 or $795 to the Mercury Tracer LS Sport. Car dealers tell consumers, 'You know, for just a little bit more a month, you can have leather'.

In the early '90s, fewer than 2 per cent of Honda Accords were sold with leather trim, and consumers were pleased, but in 1998, that percentage went up to about 35 per cent. By 1998, about half of Ford Explorers and Jeep Grand Cherokees had leather interiors and nearly all Lincoln Navigators, Mercury Mountaineers, Lexus LX 470s and RX 300s, Mitsubishi Monteros and GMC Denalis contained leather. It takes two to three times more leather to upholster an SUV than to upholster the average car.

But leather isn't just used for luxury cars. It's also used in about 10 per cent of pick-up trucks and is now commonly used in mid-priced sedans such as the Toyota Camry and even in economy cars like the Chevrolet Cavalier. So leather interiors do not indicate quality or luxury-they indicate that carmakers are trying to promote a violent, bloody business.

This surge in leather use is not simply the result of consumer demand, although that is what car companies would like you to think. The truth is that not long ago, the leather goods industry in America was suffering from a decrease in demand. According to a 1998 report, in the 20 years before the report was released, leather shoe production fell from 400 million pairs per year to 139 million. To survive, the leather industry turned its focus toward cars. The consumption of red meat - the prime factor affecting skin supply - has also declined in the US and Europe because of ethical, environmental and health concerns. As a result, the meat industry turned its focus toward Asia and the Pacific Rim where, along with the rates of heart disease and other meat-related illnesses, beef consumption has grown in recent years. These changes mean that there are plenty of cow hides available.

• “Proggy-Award für Toyota Prius” —Krone.at

• “Automakers Getting a Taste of Vegan Values” —Los Angeles Times

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