The link between the food industry and leather
The meat and leather industry generally work together and form a powerful lobby. The leather represents on average 40% of the profits derived from the animal and sometimes more if the latter is exploited only for their skin like crocodiles or snakes.
Animals exploited for their flesh are generally the same as those exploited for their skin. The conditions in which cows are kept include being held in places with no access to daylight, in spaces that are too small and overcrowded, far from meeting their physiological and behavioural needs. In such conditions, animals are most often found with wounds. Considered as just mere objects, the young are torn from their mother and undergo castration and marking – without pain relief...
Breeding, transportation, slaughter: a cruel life for animals
To buy leather is to endorse practices of breeding, transportation and the slaughter of these animals in the cruellest of manners, despite the many regulations in force in France.
Transportation to slaughter houses is also a real ordeal. Some of them die during the trip, especially because of heat stroke, trauma and respiratory diseases.
The slaughter is none the less crueller than the living conditions and that of transportation. Our investigators were able to see the fright in the eyes of the animals aware of their fate and panic in their behaviour by wanting to escape the slaughter man’s gun.
3700
40%
300
A lack of respect for the environment from the leather industry
If leather is totally disrespectful of living beings, the animal skin industry is not environmentally friendly either. Industrial farming is responsible for major pollution from nitrates.
To tan, shape, soften and tint the skins before marketing, a large amount of water and chemicals are needed for this process. 3,700 European companies are now subject to several directives and the REACH regulation to reduce the impact on the environment from emissions of gas, chromed sludge and other pollutants
The relocation of leather companies or circumventing regulations
To circumvent environmental measures, the leather industry does not hesitate to relocate to countries where legislation is at best lax or worse, non-existent. Many of them have moved to Tunisia and Bangladesh, where the industry poses many health and environmental problems. In Bangladesh, the equivalent of € 141 million in tanned leather, mostly to Europe, is exported each year to supply the footwear and leather goods industry.
A cocktail of about 300 different substances, many of them toxic, are released into nearby watercourses without any prior treatment.
As far as respect for the human labour force working in these companies is concerned, it is far from obvious. The workers have no protection, sometimes they are children, and are immersed all day long in toxic products. Most suffer from serious health problems. In Bangladesh, it is estimated that 90% of workers will not exceed 50 years life expectancy.
