posted May 21, 2007 02:44 PM         

Every year, the global leather industry slaughters more than a billion animals. Most of the leather in the U.S. and Europe comes from India, China, and other countries that either have no animal welfare laws or have laws that go largely or completely unenforced. Six years after a PETA investigation into the Indian leather industry prompted the Indian government to promise to make improvements in the transport and slaughter conditions endured by cows and other animals killed for their skin, PETA investigators have found virtually no improvements—the animals are still grotesquely abused in ways that violate Indian law and shock the conscience of all kind people.

Blatant Crime
As India's own animal protection laws are blatantly ignored, unsanitary slaughterhouses continue to pollute the environment; unlicensed, illegal slaughterhouses remain in operation; and the widespread abuse of animals persists. In direct violation of the Constitution of India, cows, who are supposed to be sacred in India, are marched for days without food or water. Those who collapse from exhaustion have their eyes smeared with chili peppers and tobacco and their tails broken in an effort to keep them moving. Crammed into extremely crowded illegal transport trucks for the long journey to slaughter, many are trampled or gored during the ride.

Because India's animal transport and slaughter laws are not enforced, many of the animals used for leather are so sick and injured by the time they arrive at the slaughterhouse that they must be dragged inside. Once inside, their throats are cut open—often with dirty, blunt knives and in full view of one another—on floors that are covered with feces, blood, guts, and urine. Some animals are even skinned and dismembered while they are still conscious.

Chinese Torture
If you're wearing leather, it most likely came from China, because China is the world's leading exporter of leather. In addition to the cattle, sheep, and other animals who are turned into leather in China, an estimated 2 million cats and dogs in China are killed for their skins each year. Confined to wire cages in which they can barely move, these animals are routinely skinned alive and hacked apart, piece by piece, until they bleed to death. Many products made from the skins of dogs and cats are bought unknowingly by consumers, because the products are often intentionally mislabeled and do not accurately indicate their origin.

You Can Help
If you're wearing leather, you're wearing skin from a horribly abused animal. Even if your shoes were manufactured in Italy, the United States, or another country, the raw materials (skins) are probably from India, China, or another country with similarly non-existent animal welfare protections.

With so many stylish synthetics now available, there is no excuse to support animal abuse. The best thing that you can do to help animals is to boycott all leather products and urge everyone you know to do the same.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH LEATHER?
Leather may be made from cows, pigs, goats, and sheep; exotic animals like alligators, ostriches, and kangaroos; and even dogs and cats, who are slaughtered for their meat and skins in China, which exports their skins around the world. Since leather is normally not labeled, you never really know where (or whom) it came from.

Most of the millions of animals slaughtered for their skin endure the horrors of factory farming before being shipped to slaughter, where many are skinned alive. Buying leather directly contributes to factory farms and slaughterhouses since skin is the most economically important byproduct of the meat-packing industry. Leather is also no friend of the environment since it shares all the environmental destruction of the meat industry, in addition to the toxins used in tanning.

With every pair of leather shoes that you buy, you sentence an animal to a lifetime of suffering. Instead, you can choose from hundreds of styles of nonleather shoes, clothing, belts, bags, and wallets. Fashion should be fun, not fatal! Read more about the cruelty of the leather industry.

posted May 21, 2007 07:54 PM         

i've had several cats at once, who roamed free outdoors and never did such things...i really don't think they'd do that. although i have known people who mutilate animals like that, for intimidation purposes, among other things....perhaps the bunnies ended up in your yard by mistake or something...dunno, i haven't seen cats who decapitate bunnies.

as for veggie-ness...i stick to a core vegetarianism regardless....i do not eat animals who bear offspring. at times i have been fruitarian, raw foodist, vegan, macrobiotic....and at others just plain lacto-ovo veggie. though i have found in the last ten years or so, that whatever my veggie status, i still refrain from wearing animals. that's much easier, for me, than becoming a dietary vegan at this time in my life. so even though i will consume dairy, i will not wear leather.

posted May 23, 2007 12:18 AM         

Sometimes I just can't take it anymore. I just DON'T GET how MAN can be so CRUEL AND COLD and not understand that ANIMALS HAVE FEELINGS TOO!!! They have a heart, and a soul and NERVES!!!! They feel pain!!!! How can humans be so insensitive and incompassionate?

posted May 23, 2007 03:35 PM         

this webpage explains exceptionally well how religious teachings about mercy were meant to include animals as well as humans ~