I was just watching a show in the television related to how the leather products are made. They are produced in a large amount in India with the increasing demand of leather products over here. We often use them in our daily life and we ignore the truth behind its way of manufacture willingly. I am really shocked. I will really never use the leather goods from today. Leather has always been the 'poor relation' of the animal rights movement, never arousing the passions that hunting, vivisection, live exports etc do. But there is a strong moral issue to be addressed here and there is also much good that can be done.
Most people will refuse to buy fur, ... but most of those same people will happily buy leather. Why? Immorality? Is it not that the anti-leather arguments put forward up to now are too week and too few? Why should this be when there is cruelty and suffering involved in parts of the leather industry that match and surpass the worst excesses of any of the more popular causes? Whilst the pragmatic answer, as always, is education and providing viable alternatives, it has to be realised that in all such matters unless you stir the emotions you won't get a result and a whole new set of stronger and more appealing arguments are needed for this issue, that has deserved better of 'us' for a very long time.
