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Hi, I'm Stella McCartney for PETA.
If you're 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's something people don't think about 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 with you 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.
Most animals who's skin is turned into leather suffer extreme crowding and confinement, deprivation,
castration, branding, tail docking and de-horning. All without any pain killers.
In the slaughterhouses, as you can see here, animals often have their throats cut, and
are skinned and dismembered while they're still alive.
Leather isn't a by-product!
It is the most important co-product of 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 are often marched
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 from exhaustion.
In order to preserve animals skins, companies use tons of toxic chemicals that can end up
in nearby soil and water supplies.
The toxic groundwater, near tanneries, has caused health problems for residents in surrounding
areas.
The CDC found that the incidence of 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 were exposed to it on a regular basis.
Studies of leather-tannery workers in Sweden and Italy found cancer risks between 20% and
50% 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 the 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, leather, and exotic-skins trade.