posted May 21, 2007 02:51 PM         

The Horror Behind the Global Leather Trade

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 07:55 PM         

Thanks for posting this to raise awareness, naiad.....

posted May 22, 2007 03:33 PM         

It makes me want to throw my hat in with BR on the having no faith in humanity of a whole.

I found this article today:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4813221.html
May 17, 2007, 7:20PM
State takes baby father allegedly burned in microwave

By HARVEY RICE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
GALVESTON — State welfare officials have taken custody of a 2-month-old girl whose father is accused of placing her in a microwave oven and will place her in a foster home when she is released from the hospital, officials said today.

Children's Protective Services took custody of the child Tuesday, the day her father, Joshua Royce Mauldin, 19, of Warren, Ark., was arrested on a charge of felony injury to a child, CPS spokeswoman Gwen Carter said.

She said CPS has asked that no family member be allowed to visit the child at Galveston's Shriners Burns Hospital, where physicians from the University of Texas Medical Branch have performed two skin grafts.

Galveston Police Sgt. Annie Almendarez said CPS was moving to terminate the parents' rights to the child.

The child suffered burns on the left side of her face and to her left hand, police said.

Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said he had seen photographs of the child's injuries. "It's pretty damned horrible," he said. "They clearly met the definition of serious bodily injury."

A Galveston County grand jury indicted Mauldin on Wednesday after hearing evidence that he placed his daughter in a microwave at a motel for 10 to 20 seconds.

Almendarez said the child remained in critical but stable condition. A spokeswoman at Shriners Burns Hospital declined to release any information about the child's injuries, treatment or condition.

Mauldin, who said he came to Galveston with his wife and mother because he was called to be a preacher, told police he put his daughter in the microwave because he was under stress. Police have declined to elaborate.

Police have said the mother and grandmother remained under investigation and were being housed at an undisclosed location. Sistrunk said the fact that the investigation was continuing "means there may be more charges forthcoming."

He said police had sent the microwave oven and a refrigerator from Mauldin's room at the Quality Inn, where the incident occurred, to the Department of Public Safety crime laboratory for examination. Neither Sistrunk nor Almendarez would say why the refrigerator was being examined by the crime lab.

Almendarez also said the hotel room safe was mentioned in the report by investigators, but she declined to elaborate.

Mauldin worked at a Sonic Drive-In in Warren, Ark., a town of about 6,000, before arriving in Galveston with his wife and the child's paternal grandmother the day before the child was burned.

Warren police Sgt. Don Hollingsworth said Mauldin pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery. He also was charged with violation of an order of protection, an order usually associated with domestic violence or divorce cases.

The child's maternal grandmother, Melinda Murphy, of Warren, Ark., said she was unable to discuss the incident. "It's hard on me and my family," she said. "It's too hard for me to talk about it right now."

Carter said CPS investigators have been working with police since the baby was hospitalized May 10, after the father told police he had stumbled while making coffee and spilled scalding liquid on the child.

"That was inconsistent with the injury," Carter said about Mauldin's initial explanation. "Our staff worked really closely with law enforcement officials and medical staff who questioned the incident as it was explained."

James Marx, manager of the Quality Inn on Seawall Boulevard where Mauldin was staying with his family, said Mauldin initially told his employees that the child was sunburned.

He said the family checked out of the motel room on Saturday, two days after the child was injured and four days before Mauldin's arrest. The family's whereabouts since then have not been made public.

CPS investigators intend to interview relatives in Arkansas or ask the assistance of Arkansas officials in conducting the interviews, Carter said.

Carter said CPS has scheduled a mediation session with the family for Wednesday to discuss the terms under which the parents will relinquish custody. If the no agreement can be reached, a hearing will be conducted before a family court judge, she said.

Mauldin remains in the Galveston County Jail under a $250,000 bond. If convicted, he could be fined up to $10,000 and imprisoned from five to 99 years.

harvey.rice@chron.com