Leather: Do We Know How It's Made?

[shrid]

I read something online, you might've read it as well. Can't remember anything else, but this one line clearly:

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India: You have a cow. You worship it.
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Or do we?

My mother read about it on WhatsApp. Since most of the facts over there are false, ridiculous (e.g. "Cosmic rays from Mars to hit Earth at 3000 hrs IST" & "Forward this message to two other groups to charge your battery 100%" etc.), I Googled "How is leather made". What I read wretched my heart, but also opened my eyes.

Cows, considered holy in India (maybe I shouldn't discuss that) and goats, pigs, exotic animals such as alligators are slaughtered mercilessly. I won't go into graphic descriptions, but you can click here or here to read it. I just read this today, and thinking of using art(ificial) leather only here on. Not that I buy Kgs of leather each month.

Unfortunately, my dad was gifted with a leather belt watch (twice!) and we bought (art?) leather seat covers for the car. I'm not sure if they're real or man-made leather.

I hope this spreads some awareness

Thanks.

 

[Niku]

Re: Leather: Do we know how it is made?

Art leather seat covers are not real leather, as they don't have properties of real leather (i.e. they heat up badly when the car is parked under sunlight and result in sweat formation when used for long durations unlike cloth seat covers [not getting the right word]). Real leather seat covers cost (thankfully) 5 to 6 times the art leather ones, and thus their use is limited in the Indian markets.

Regarding belts, watches, and other articles, they may be made with real animal skin. Because watches, wallets, etc. demand a higher price tag as compared to normal ones.
Thanks for this thread and hope people get the message!

 

[shrid]

Re: Leather: Do we know how it is made?

Art leather seat covers are not real leather, as they don't have properties of real leather (i.e. they heat up badly when the car is parked under sunlight and result in sweat formation when used for long durations unlike cloth seat covers [not getting the right word]).

The word is Fabric :)

Real leather seat covers cost (thankfully) 5 to 6 times the art leather ones, and thus their use is limited in the Indian markets.

I bought it for ~ 5k. Not that I'm an activist (again not sure if this is the right word) but somehow after reading, using leather reminds me of the animal and somehow a small bit of guilt too. Earlier I thought they were killed and then their skins extracted but this is unbelievable. I'm still not sure this is the truth, if anyone working in the leather industry can clarify, that'd be great.

Regarding belts, watches, and other articles, they may be made with real animal skin. Because watches, wallets, etc. demand a higher price tag as compared to normal ones.
Thanks for this thread and hope people get the message!

...

 

[Niku]

Re: Leather: Do we know how it is made?

I bought it for ~ 5k. Not that I'm an activist (again not sure if this is the right word) but somehow after reading, using leather reminds me of the animal and somehow a small bit of guilt too. Earlier I thought they were killed and then their skins extracted but this is unbelievable. I'm still not sure this is the truth, if anyone working in the leather industry can clarify, that'd be great.

Exactly, using leather brings a guilty feeling. I have seen Youtube videos of sheep (not in India) being punched in the face, kicked, beaten and dragged for wool, and that too from a leading supplier of wool (don't remember the name). That video literally made me cry . I presume this might be true also.

The seat covers we buy are art leather ones, available for 5-7k. In India, majority of the cars (atleast below Rs.30 lacs) have art leather ones. Original leather ones cost upwards of 25k AFAIK. In my locality, there was a Laura with 70k rupee seat covers!