Activists vow to make leather as unacceptable as fur
By Michael McCarthy and Peter Popham
14 February 2000
Radical animal rights campaigners tomorrow take what they see as a momentous step by moving their successful attack on the wearing of fur to the wearing of leather.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), the US-based group which dumped a dead raccoon on the lunch plate of fur-wearing fashion editor Anna Wintour, will launch its campaign with an international denunciation of the Indian leather trade. In a land where cows are supposed to be sacred, the group says, thousands are subjected to agonising abuse to serve the leather industry, which exports to the US and Britain among other countries. It is releasing a video tomorrow showing mistreatment of Indian cattle, the scale of which is backed by The Independent’s inquiries.
Ingrid Newkirk, Peta president, believes there is “no question” wearing leather will one day be as socially unacceptable as wearing fur. “It’s just hairless fur.” Britain’s leather trade says it is a by-product of the meat industry and the one will persist as long as the other.
Peta’s campaign launch coincides with London Fashion Week. Last week anti-fur activists disrupted New York Fashion Week. While Peta is not expected to disrupt the London show, it is not holding back about India.
The video shows cows having their throats cut, unstunned, in view of other cows, and being subjected to a catalogue of cruelties on the journey to the slaughterhouse, which Peta calls “the death march”. The video and the campaign are likely to cause uproar in India, where cows, sacred to Hindus, are protected by law. The laws are not being enforced, Peta says.
The video is to be narrated by Pamela Anderson Lee, the Baywatch star who, like Brigitte Bardot, has travelled the same road from sex symbol to animal campaigner.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Asia_China/2000-02/leather140200.shtml
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Asia_China/2000-02/anrights140200.shtml