If you wear leather look what you support…….
Leather: Hell for Animals and Children in Bangladesh
[wpvideo cszxxvaQ] source peta.com
Singer and animal rights activist Leona Lewis narrates a shocking PETA video exposé of Bangladesh’s billion-dollar leather industry, which reveals who really pays the highest price for “affordable” leather: animals and workers, including children.
Long and Agonizing Transports
Every year, an estimated 2 million cows from India are bound, thrown onto trucks, and transported thousands of miles to Bangladesh in order to circumvent Indian slaughter bans. Video footage reveals that many cows were emaciated, exhausted, and so malnourished that they couldn’t stand up by the time they arrived. They suffered from broken tails and open, festering wounds. The eyewitness did not see any veterinary care given to the animals.
Skinned Alive and Slaughtered
Cows and goats are often illegally slaughtered for their skins on the streets of Bangladesh at night, and the animals are forced to watch others’ throats being cut with a knife. In official slaughterhouses, workers bind their legs and slit their throats—all while they’re still conscious. As seen in the video footage, cows are sometimes still alive and kicking as their skin is ripped off their bodies.
Dangers to Workers
Workers, including children, were documented performing hazardous tasks such as soaking hides in toxic chemicals and using knives to cut the skins, which are then used to make hand bags, shoes, and other leather products that are sold around the world. Children even operate machinery. The unprotected workers stand barefoot in cancer-causing chemicals and use acids that can cause chronic skin diseases. An estimated 90 percent of these tannery workers die before the age of 50.
You Can Help Animals and Children!
No matter where it comes from—Bangladesh, China, India, or even the U.S.—leather is the product of a cruel industry. Leona wants you to know the facts and pledge never to wear animal skins again. Your pledge will let designers, retailers, and others who profit off cruelty know that animal skins belong on animals, not in your closet.
Take the Pledge to Be Leather-Free!
Fight cruelty to animals by pledging never to wear or buy leather. Learn more about the cruel leather industry and make a conscious choice to practice compassion and spare animals’ lives.
Places that sell and trade and keep this horrific industry running
- http://pakistan.go4worldbusiness.com/Leather
- http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/pakistan-leather-export.html
- http://leather-goods.europages.co.uk/companies/Pakistan/Leather%20goods%20-%20manufacturers’%20supplies%20and%20accessories.html
- http://www.europages.co.uk/companies/Pakistan/manufacturer%20of%20leather%20garments.html
- http://www.baggiorossini.com.tr/
- http://www.tandyleather.com/en/
I agree with your message 110% that leather (& suede) is absolute heinous evil and needs to be addressed much more!! Our society ‘norm’ is blind to this suffering and also to the cruelty and abuse wrapped up in wool, down and silk. So many people are outraged by fur but for some reason don’t think twice about leather. The only thing about this post is I don’t think using PETA is a good idea. Many people think ‘wackos” when they hear the name and don’t take them seriously because of their antics and tactics. I am no longer a supporter, mainly because they are pro-BSL and because their employees illegally disposed of euthanized animals in their care. Check these out for more anti-leather info: http://www.peopleforanimalsindia.org/current-campaigns.php http://www.veganviews.org.uk/vv86/vv86leather.html https://www.facebook.com/notes/10150103205488891/
from Peta’s website: To clarify PETA’s position on pit bulls: We’re for ’em.
By “for ’em,” I mean that we are for pit bull protection, for their happiness, and for treating them like dogs instead of like cheap burglar alarms, punching bags, or gladiators in perverted death matches.
Some pit bull fanciers out there seem to think that PETA is “against” pit bulls because we don’t oppose breed-specific measures to address what is obviously a breed-specific crisis. Au contraire. If someone proposed a ban on breeding Labrador retrievers or Chihuahuas or poodles (you get the picture – any dog), we’d be for those too. That’s because we don’t think any dogs should be brought into the world as long as millions are dying for lack of homes in animal shelters and on the streets every year.
Millions, people. Millions of dogs just like the ones you share your homes with have to be euthanized because too many people fail to spay and neuter their animals and choose to buy from breeders and pet stores instead of saving lives by adopting from animal shelters. Wouldn’t we be derelict in our duty if we didn’t support laws that would alleviate suffering and reduce those numbers? If those laws saved just one animal from suffering a miserable life or a painful death, wouldn’t they be worth it?
Pit bulls are often singled out by legislators because they are involved in so many attacks on humans and other dogs—as well as horrific cruelty cases. Our fieldworkers know firsthand just how frequently and mercilessly pit bulls are abused. These dogs are hands-down the most common victims of heartbreaking abuse and severe neglect that our caseworkers encounter.
I’m going to warn you—the following pictures, which were taken by our caseworkers of pit bulls they have helped, are graphic and disturbing. But I hope you’ll steel yourself to look at them and decide for yourself whether or not these suffering dogs would have been better off if they had never been born: [link to the pictures] http://www.peta.org/blog/peta-position-pit-bulls/