While leather is a profitable co-product of the beef and dairy industries, the fashion industry continues to refer to it as a worthless ‘by-product’, even a kind of recycling initiative, in an effort to distance itself from their own irresponsible supply chains practices.
Cows continue to be ignored by an industry profiting from the
sale of their skins. Image: a cow on a slaughterhouse truck from We Animals
Media
There’s no doubt you’ve read an article about ‘the leather debate’.
Fashion industry figureheads love to explore the possibility of more
‘responsibly produced’ animal-derived leather and pick apart the
sustainability credentials of synthetic and bio-based alternatives.
They analyse tannery practices and the massive climate and
biodiversity impacts of cow skin leather. But there’s one thing we
don’t read about: what leather production means for cows themselves.
While leather is a profitable co-product of the beef and dairy
industries, the fashion industry continues to refer to it as a
worthless ‘by-product’, even a kind of recycling initiative, in an
effort to distance itself from their own irresponsible supply chains
practices. In reality, the leather industry is worth billions, with
the popularity and profitability of leather directly linked to the
number of cattle reared for slaughter, according to industry bodies
including the Leather and Hide Council of America.
As such, those profiting from the sale of animal skin products have
an unshakable responsibility to consider the interlinked
environmental and ethical impacts of their leather. But this isn’t
what’s happening. Instead, even with FOUR PAWS global surveying
finding that 86% of people believe animal protection must be a
priority in fashion, the plight of cattle seems determinedly ignored
by an industry benefiting from intentionally designed public
ignorance on what animal-derived material production really looks
like.
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