{"id":124758,"date":"2010-06-22T17:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-23T00:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peta.org\/issues\/leather-industry\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T11:40:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T18:40:22","slug":"leather-industry","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/issues\/animals-used-for-clothing\/leather-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Leather Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Leather can be made from cows, pigs, goats, and sheep; exotic animals such as alligators, ostriches, and kangaroos; and dogs and cats, who are slaughtered for their meat and skin in China, which exports their skins around the world. Because leather is normally not labeled, you never really know where (or whom) it came from.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\"Cows<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most leather comes from developing countries such as India<\/a> and China, where animal welfare laws are either non-existent or not enforced. In India, a PETA investigation found that workers break cows’ tails and rub chili peppers and tobacco into their eyes in order to force them to get up and walk after they collapse from exhaustion on the way to the slaughterhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the U.S., many of the millions of cows and other animals who are killed for their skin endure the horrors of factory farming\u2014extreme crowding and deprivation as well as castration, branding, and tail-docking\u2014all without any painkillers. At slaughterhouses, animals routinely have their throats cut and some are even skinned and dismembered while they are still conscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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