Life of all leather products begins in the slaughterhouse

It is true that the life of all leather products begin in the slaughter house. Every year, the global leather industry slaughters more than a billion animals and tans their skins and hides. Even exotic animals like alligators are plucked from their habitat and factory-farmed for their skins.

Our soccer shoes come from kangaroo skin. Kid goats may be boiled alive to make gloves and the skins of unborn calves and lambs—some purposely aborted, others from slaughtered pregnant cows and ewes—are considered especially “luxurious.” An estimated 2 million dogs and cats are killed in China to meet the demand for their skin.

This much for cruelty.

Post cruelty the animal skin is turned into finished leather with a variety of much more dangerous substances, including mineral salts, formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and various oils, dyes, and finishes, some of which are cyanide-based.
Western countries have enforced stringent environmental controls on leather manufacturing, forcing them to import products from Asian countries.

The uncontrolled discharge of untreated effluent from tanneries is a growing problem in these countries. Not only are people living close by affected, the effluent also contaminates the sea as well as the inland water supply. Pollution of water supply also affects the food supply for the population. Burning tannery residuals into the atmosphere also causes pollution.

In my search for ecologically sound alternatives I came across ‘Ahimsa Leather’ – the non-violent way to footwear.
http://copperwiki.org/index.php/Ahimsa_Leather

It’s the next best thing to being barefoot.

There are in fact several related articles in this open collaboration platform for people seeking choices for living a responsible life. A quick reference tool when in doubt.

http://copperwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page

The great part is that it is an ‘editable’ organization which subscribes to the wiki philosophy of an ‘anyone can edit’ where good people, with good intent and good work prevail over the not-so-good, the not-yet-great-enough, and sometimes the downright bad ones.