The ugly, dark secret of leather making

By Bhawna Sinha

I went to a mall and was petrified to see what was going on around me. It was something like the "demonic world" where murder and butchering is the only way to deal with others.

I saw a cow's skin dripping in blood, hanging around a six-foot mannequin in a clothing store. Well, no, I'm not being completely serious in what I saw, but let's be clear about what I am addressing: humans and animals.

That six-foot mannequin had on a black leather jacket. So what's so devilish about that? It's the use of leather -- a cruel practice that must stop.

We use and take advantage of animals in many ways. We choose to keep some as companion animals, to confine some for entertaining us in zoos, and to eat some. We also choose to kill and wear some.

The global leather industry slaughters more than a billion animals every year. In fact, leather tanning and finishing in the U.S. is a multibillion-dollar industry: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2000, the U.S. leather industry shipment was worth $3.16 billion.

The problem with leather is that these animals are reared only to be killed for their skin. The animals go through a lot of suffering that many of us do not know about.

In the leather industry, these animals undergo the horrors of factory farming. Just as manufacturing sectors use assembly lines to maximize profits, the leather industry uses factory farming to maximize profits by implementing large-scale, industrialized agriculture and farming of animals. And just as other companies try to minimize costs, factory farmers do this by confining animals in such a way that severely restricts their mobility.

In order to maximize space, factory farmers, for example, dehorn cows and cut off their tails. Similarly, pigs have to undergo painful mutilations such as teeth clipping, tail docking and ear notching. And, of course, they are not lucky enough to be mutilated with anesthetics. These animals obviously get no veterinary care and are constantly injected with growth hormones. So by the time animals are ready to be slaughtered, they become so weak that they can't even see, walk or sit properly.

The trauma doesn't end in factory farms. En route to the slaughter houses, animals are crammed into transportation trucks where another painful journey begins. In order to restrict them from moving, they are often roped together. If the cows have not yet been dehorned, they now injure other cows as they try to move or turn their heads. It's not uncommon for cows to get blinded in the process. And, of course, they have to make the journey with no food or water. By the time they reach slaughter houses, they are covered in their own feces and urine, and many of them are already dead.

In the slaughter house, these animals are hung upside down, and in an effort to be time efficient, the assembly line workers start de-skinning them before the animals are completely dead (as required by law). And, as if cruelty knows no bounds, animals such as pigs and goats are often boiled alive to de-skin them. Fortunately, after this, animals die, and we can finally spare them.

These are some of the facts that go into making leather, so I am asking you to stop purchasing leather in any form.

Many think it's difficult to stop the use of leather when it's so common and seems to be everywhere. But to make the issue a priority, people must first stop buying leather. As we try not to buy leather-made goods, we slowly create a demand for pseudo-leather materials. Gradually, as synthetic materials come into the market and as we keep buying those goods, more and more businesses will enter the industry. This will create more and more innovation and competition, which will further drive down the price. In fact, the synthetic leather industry has already started making and bringing such products to the market.

Yes, it will take years for us to become a leather-free society, but haven't we been fighting against social ills such as poverty? The more we fight against poverty, the more theories and methods we develop to overcome it. The same goes for the leather industry. If just a few clips of Saddam Hussein's execution raises an incredible controversy, then with media coverage of just one animal in one slaughter house, we may start seeing mannequins without leather jackets in store windows.

Let's stop taking off others' skin to cover ours when we can do without.

Bhawna Sinha is a senior finance major and copy editor for The Santa Clara