[nukkad] Stop the slaughter!

[Sandeep Budhrani <>]

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Stop the slaughter

(this was taken from Vikas Arora Prabhu of Hari Smaran Group)
indya.com presents an exclusive appearance by Maneka Gandhi(Union Minister)

I often meet vegetarians who would "die" rather than eat meat. A closer look
shows a leather watch strap/bag/shoes.

These are the excuses I then hear:
a) I am vegetarian due to health, not animal welfare reasons.
b) I buy my leather products from Khadi Gram Udyog because the animal died
naturally.
c) There is no alternative in India to leather. I can't go round in rubber
chappals or use cloth jholas.
d) The plastic alternatives are environmentally unfriendly because they come
from petrochemical products and are non biodegradable.
e) (This comes from the evolved environmentalists) I can't use cotton
because it's grown with chemical pesticides and fertilisers.
f) The animal was killed for its meat. Leather is only a by-product so there
is no harm in using it.
g) (I promise this is true) What nonsense - leather does not come from the
skin of animals.
h) I am helping poor people by buying leather products.

I think all these myths should be dealt with.

Myth: Leather is a by-product of the meat industry.
Reality: India is the largest leather manufacturer in the world. This
business running into lakhs of skins daily is not going to wait for
slaughterhouse skins alone. Leather is not an incidental product of rearing of
animals for meat.

Although the skins and hides of sheep and goats are a small source of raw
material for tanners, cattle hide and calf skin account for most footwear
and leather goods. These are derived from millions of cattle slaughtered
annually, including dairy cattle. Speciality leather is made from deer,
alligators, lizards, sharks, snakes, crocodiles, and other exotic species,
which are killed solely for this purpose.

In India very few people eat cattle meat. Many people exaggerate, for
political reasons, the amount of buffalo meat eaten by Muslims. But, all
studies show that Muslims eat mainly the same meat as Hindus - goat and
chicken meat.

Cattle in India are slaughtered primarily for their skins and very often the
meat is thrown away.
Also people eat the meat that is locally available to them. The millions of
cattle that are jam-packed into trains and trucks to go to West Bengal and
Kerala to be slaughtered are only going for the leather industry, as 90 per
cent of them die from overcrowding and starvation during the journey and their
meat cannot be eaten. Even the vultures don't touch it!

Myth: Leather comes from the skins of animals that have died of natural
causes.
Reality: This is a myth put out by the Khadi Gram Udyog. How can such a
large organisation with retail outlets in every state of India ensure a
steady supply of carcasses? Do they have people scouting all the villages
collecting the bodies of cattle and buffaloes that waste away after 20
years?

Besides, have you seen the skin of an old animal? Its hide is patched and
worn. There is no way you can produce uniform quality leather goods randomly
collecting the skins of such aged beasts. Mahatma Gandhi's Khadi Gram Udyog
has no business selling leather.

An interview conducted with the main buyers of Khadi Gram Udyog revealed
that they gave the contract for their leather supply to contractors that
supplied leather for normal footwear in the leather industry. Which means
that there was no question of using or even differentiating between cattle
killed for leather and cattle that died naturally.

All the leather in India comes from young cattle. This, in spite of a
Parliament law and state laws that forbid the killing of cattle under 14-16
years (some states say 14, others 16). Calf leather is specifically
forbidden but leather sellers advertise it openly. Which calves die
naturally?

Myth: The animals spend contented lives grazing in fields and are sent to
slaughter because they are old.
Reality: Leather is not taken from old cows but from cattle sent to
slaughter. Cattle are selectively bred and subjected to a range of cruel
procedures, including artificial insemination, artificial weaning and
feeding, dosing with antibiotics, castration, marking, and the separation of
cow and calf within a few days of birth.

As a consequence of undergoing a vicious cycle of pregnancy and lactation,
dairy cows are especially susceptible to mastitis and lameness. Once they
are sick they are killed. Their male calves are murdered in millions each
year to provide tanneries with highly valued fine grain skin, used for shoe
uppers, jackets, gloves and wallets.

Kidskin leather is from baby goats. However, the most prized skin used to
make soft suede is obtained from unborn calves, which means their mothers
are beaten to make them abort and the foetus is skinned and sold.

The natural life expectancy of a cow is 20 years, yet beef cattle are killed
at one to three years and dairy cows at three to seven years due to disease
(36 per cent), poor yield (28 per cent) and the inability to calve (36 per
cent). They are killed to make more money for their owners from the sale of
their body parts including meat and leather.

Myth: Unlike a wild fur-bearing animal, the meat (leather) producing animal is
killed humanely.
Reality: At the very least, transportation to the slaughterhouse causes
animals severe stress. Packed in cramped conditions, they may suffer heat
exhaustion, heart attacks, bruising, hunger, dehydration, and broken
bones,before reaching the slaughterhouses.

The law says that only twelve cattle can be put into one train bogey. In
reality each train carries over 44 cattle squashed together in each bogey.
The law says that only four cattle can be put in a truck. Over 75 are often
thrown into one, their limbs and tails broken to make more room.

Their noses are tied together and ten of them made to march hundreds of
miles. If one falls, its tailbones are broken and chillies put in its eyes
till it stands up again. If it dies, it is skinned on the spot.

Once in the slaughterhouse they are killed in the most crude and cruel
manner. The knives are rusty and the workers callous and untrained. Butchers
need possess no formal qualification or training. In mechanised
slaughterhouses in Andhra Pradesh, boiling water is poured on the animal and
its skin stripped while it is still alive and hanging upside down.

In Kerala, the head is smashed in with a hammer - often up to 20 blows being
given before the animal dies. Many of the butchers are children.

Myth: Unlike plastic alternatives, leather products are
environment-friendly.
Reality: Tanneries not only emit unpleasant odours, they produce a host of
pollutants - including lead, zinc, formaldehyde, dyes, and cyanide based
chemicals. And added to the equation is the devastating environmental impact
of raising livestock. Animal slurry is probably the major cause of water
pollution: cattle, sheep and other ruminants are one of the main sources of
global warming.

Methane and nitrogen in animal waste volatises to form ammonia - the single
greatest cause of acid rain; the felling of trees for livestock grazing, and
the amount of young shoots and grass eaten results in soil erosion.

Farm animals compete with us for land, water, and fuel, and consume five to
ten times as much primary plant food as people.

Turning animal hides into leather is an energy intensive and polluting
practice. The Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology states: "On
the basis of quantity of energy consumed per unit of product, the leather
manufacturing industry would be categorised with aluminium, paper, steel,
cement and petroleum manufacturing industries as a gross consumer of
energy."

"Production of leather basically involves soaking (bean house), tanning,
dyeing, drying and finishing. Over 95 per cent leather production is chrome
tainted. The effluent that must be treated is primarily related to the bean
house and tanning operations. The most difficult to treat is the effluent from
the tanning process."

All wastes containing chrome are considered hazardous. Many other pollutants
employed by the processing of leather are considered primary environment and
health risks. In terms of disposal, one would think that leather products
would be biodegradable. But the primary function for a tanning agent is to
stabilise the collagen or protein fibres so that they are no longer
bio-degradable.

If that were not enough, leather production causes serious water pollution
as well. India has so far taken a loan of Rs. 2000 crores to try and clean
the Ganges of the effluents poured into it from Kanpur's leather industries.
No success so far.

Myth: Leather is a major money earner for India. It is also a major
employer.
Reality: Don't think that you are doing social service for India by buying
leather. The leather manufacturers pay no taxes, as it is a small-scale
industry. The leather exporters who earn 1.5 billion dollars pay no taxes.

In fact the government pays them incentives to export. The people who are
involved by the leather industry are mainly on the tanning side; they flay
the skins, soak them in chemicals, et al.

Many of these people earn the lowest possible wages and die very young
because of the cyanide, chrome and other chemicals that they steep
themselves in. Compensation is not paid nor any precautions taken for their
safeties, as the leather manufacturers claim to be small scale themselves.

Every time they fall sick, which is within months of this oppressive labour,
the government foots their major medical bills and the owner of the tannery
gets himself another poor person to exploit. The happy parts of the leather
trade-the actually making of shoes and garments-is all done by machine.

Do the leather manufacturers pay for the forests that have been destroyed by
the cattle grazing on them? Do they pay for the water sources that have
dried up as a result of forest cover disappearing? No, they take an animal
that has fed on land that is called common land and denuded it.

The Government's Ministry for Wasteland Development then pays money to NGOs
for these lands to be greened again. Do the leather manufacturers pay the
Ministry? No. They make the money and India pays the bill. Which means you pay
for the enormous wealth of the leather manufacturer.

Many Western countries are increasingly turning to leather alternatives.
China, which used to be the largest leather exporter, is now the world's
largest synthetic leather exporter. Countries like Thailand are following
suit. Most European countries that used to produce leather have passed the
environmental burden to India and now merely either take the finished hide
or use synthetics.

A look at the Internet listings for leather alternative throws up more than
12,000 links for all sorts of non-cruelty, non-leather items. The
Compassionate Shopper regularly lists companies that sell non-leather shoes
for instance.

Do you want to help India's environment and join its anti-cruelty team?
First make a list of all the leather items in your life:
Watch straps, shoes, wallets, jackets, belts, drums (tablas), bags,
briefcases, hats, furniture covers, pants and other garments, cricket
balls,footballs, jewellery cases, spectacle cases, key chains,
bookbinding,lampshades, toys, gloves.

There are so many alternatives to each. Suede-like materials for garments
(both leather and suede are so silly to use in a hot country like India),
cloth wallets and bags. Canvas belts with brass buckles. Spalding
manufactures synthetic leather volleyballs, footballs and basketballs.

Cotton or spandex can replace leather gloves; synthetic fibre skin on drums is
as good. Waxed cloth and faux leather for jackets. Plastic, jute, canvas and
EKKO-a new non-polluting combination of natural and synthetic rubber are
commonly available.

The most widely purchased item is shoes. What are you looking for? Something
eye catching, water resistant, durable, allowing your feet to breathe? Who
says that these qualities can't be found in non-leather shoes?

Vegetarian shoes not only outlast leather but also require less maintenance,
as they don't have to be polished. High quality non-leather is water-resistant
and also allows the feet to breathe. Nike, Adidas and Reebok have animal free
shoes. Chlorenol (called Hydrolite in Adidas and Durabuck in Nike) is an
innovative new material that stretches round the foot with the same
flexibility as leather.

Some non-leather companies have introduced cork and hemp shoes with a
contoured cork footbed. Companies like Action Shoes and Bata say that they
have a vast line of non-leather shoes for men, women and children. Non
leather shoe shops like Rinaldis in Mumbai have the most beautiful shoes
possible.

Anyone who wants to go into collaboration with a foreign non-leather company
will find himself rich. Especially now since the West is stopping leather
import from India. Anything China can do we can do better!

Here are a few hints:
Some people complain that vinyl shoes squeak. Put a little mineral oil, hand
cream or any lubricant between the noisy surfaces.
Many patent leather shoes are in fact synthetic. Look for the man made
material label on it. Leatherette is not leather. It is high quality vinyl.

Don't wear dead animals on your feet. If the cow is your sacred animal don't
let her be killed for your needs. The wearer is responsible for the killer and
ignorance is no defence. You are the person who makes the money for the
leather industry and destroys India's environment as well.

Is your pair of shoes worth the Ganges River or the Himalayan hillsides or
your State forest sanctuary? All of them are contained in the leather that
you buy. Purchasing leather goods helps to make the rearing and killing of
over 600 million cattle, goats a year in the country a profitable business,and
maintains a demand that can be satisfied only by the taking of life.

Make an effort to find non-leather items and ask each leather shop you know to
stock non-leather goods as well. You will see how quickly the message
spreads.


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