Why Shouldn’t You Get a Leather Wallet?

A lot of people refuse to wear fur since it is obtained using gruesome practices. Most of the animals that are bred for the leather industry are kept in terrible conditions before they are finally slaughtered in an inhumane manner. Still consumers know very little about the leather that they buy. It is often thought that leather is a by-product of the meat and milk industry. Unfortunately the truth is quite different.

Leather around the world is made from cows, pigs, goats, sheep; exotic animals such as alligators or ostriches and even from cats and dogs. Because leather isn’t usually labeled you can never be sure where it comes from.One of the major suppliers of leather are developing countries such as India and China, where animal welfare laws don’t exist or are hardly ever applied. An undercover investigation conducted by PETA has shown that the cattle used in these countries for the leather industry doesn’t have the same life as the cattle that is worshiped on the streets. The cattle there is usually forced to travel long distances to the slaughterhouses without any food or water. The exhausted animals are also often tortured on their way by breaking their tails or by putting chili into their eyes just to make them stand up and continue their dreadful trip.

Source: peta.org

In addition to that the leather industry is also responsible for much damage to the environment. In order to keep the animal hides in a proper condition a lot of toxic chemicals are used, which end up in the soil. The amount of waste and pollution caused by the leather industry is enormous. Even though plastic is seen as polluting it is still much more environmentally friendlier than leather.
With every leather wallet or a pair of leather shoes that you buy, you sentence an animal to a lifetime of suffering. Fortunately there is an increasing amount of places where it is possible to buy animal friendly fashion, which can replace products made out of fur and leather. Remember, fashion should be fun, not fatal!

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Source: peta.org
Cover photo credit: [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F…]