Applauding her label’s policy against fur and exotic skins, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has written to Victoria Beckham to share a powerful new video that asks viewers to open their eyes to the cruelty of the leather trade. The group hopes the gesture, which follows its disruption of the designer’s show at Paris Fashion Week, will inspire her to extend compassion to fellow mums by ending her use of animal skin, which come from separating desperate mothers from their babies.
“Exposés by PETA entities have shown that animal leather is always the product of extreme violence – no matter where it comes from,” writes PETA Vice President of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “[M]uch of the skin used for ‘luxury’ fashion comes from calves who were torn away from their mothers just hours after they were born. As you know, a mother’s instinct to protect her babies is intense. Just like us, cows share a strong, loving bond with their young, and no handbag or jacket can justify the trauma of separation they endure or the horror of the slaughterhouse.”
The more than 1 billion animals exploited annually around the world for leather endure horrific abuse. In India, cows’ tails are routinely broken and irritants like tobacco and even chillis are rubbed into their eyes to force them to trek up to 60 miles to a slaughterhouse. Inside abattoirs, cows are thrown on bloodied floors with their feet bound. Sometimes their legs are hacked off while they’re still conscious, and some endure the agony of being skinned alive while others are shot in the head before their throats are slit.Female cows are repeatedly impregnated, and their terrified babies are torn away from them shortly after birth – any item branded as “calf leather” came from the violent abduction and slaughter of these babies.
Aside from being cruel, leather is terrible for the planet. Each year, the global leather industry produces 600 million cubic metres of effluent, and industry studies have identified that cow leather is fashion’s most environmentally damaging material – over 90% of the damage occurs before the skins even reach the tannery, where then up to 170 unique chemicals are used.
With its letter, PETA sent samples of innovative plant-based leathers, including those made from cactus, olive, and grape as well as plastic-free plant leather Mirum, urging the fashion icon to use such animal- and planet-friendly materials in future collections.
