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[Stella] Hi I’m Stella McCartney for PETA. If you like me, you’ve sworn of fur because
you know about the gruesome ways animals suffer and die for fur fashions. And what about leather?
That is something people don’t think as much. Anyone who cares about animals or the
environment should become informed consumers on this issue. It’s widely known why I don’t
use fur but please let me share why I made the decision to shed leather. Our aim is not
to tell you what to wear, but to give you the facts so you can make informed decisions
next time you’re considering buying leather. In the US, most whose skin is turned in to
leather, suffer extreme crowding and confinement, deprivation, castration, branding, tail docking
and dehorning, all without any painkillers. In slaughterhouses as you can see here, animals
often have their throats cut and they’re skinned and dismembered while they are still
alive. Leather isn’t a by-product. It is the most important co-product in the meat
industry, which means that buying leather directly contributes to the horrors of intensive
factory farming. Millions of animals die for the sake of fashion every year. In India,
which is where most of the world’s leather comes from cows often march hundreds of miles
to slaughter through dust and extreme heat without a drop of water or a single bite of
food. Workers break cows tails and rub chili pepper into their eyes in order to force them
to get up and keep on walking after they have collapsed of exhaustion. In order to preserve
animal skins, companies use tons of toxic chemicals that can end up in nearby soil and
water supplies. The toxic ground water near tanneries has caused health problems for residents
in surrounding areas. The CDC found the incident leukemia among residents near one tannery
in Kentucky was five times the national average. Arsenic, a common tannery chemical has long
been associated with lung cancer in workers who are exposed to it on a regular basis.
Studies of leather tannery workers in Sweden and Italy found cancer risks between twenty
percent and fifty percent above normal rates. As a designer I like to work with fabrics
that don’t bleed. That’s why I avoid all animal skins. Please join me in exploring
the huge variety of fashionable shoes, belts, purses and wallets that aren’t a product
of a cows violent death. You can buy cruelty free fashion all over the place now since
the demand is always increasing as people learn the dark truth about the fur and leather
and exotic skins trade. Please visit peta.org for more information and thank you.