PETA India pushes retailers & consumers to boycott Indian leather

03 Jul '06

3 min read

PETA India and its worldwide affiliates are re-launching a campaign to encourage retailers and consumers worldwide to boycott Indian leather.

This decision comes after a total lack of enforcement of the animal welfare standards which were promised by the former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and late Minister of Commerce Murasoli Maran, a refusal by the Council for Leather Exports (CLE) to stop its members from supporting illegal slaughterhouses and CLE's failure to take sincere and significant action to alleviate the suffering of animals used for leather.

Today, PETA India will hold its first series of demonstrations outside the Delhi International Leather Fair.

PETA India investigations spanning seven years reveal that Indian animals used for leather are transported in such poor, crowded conditions that their bones break, and they often suffocate or die en route to slaughter.

The animals are routinely dragged, beaten and otherwise cruelly and illegally mishandled. At all municipal slaughterhouses, animals are slaughtered in full view of each other, which is illegal.

Although it claims to have an Animal Welfare Reform Programme, the CLE refuses to initiate any action to prevent leather businesses from obtaining hides and skins – even from unlicensed, illegal slaughterhouses.

The CLE's Animal Welfare Reform Programme lacks the vigour and follow-through which would be required in order for concrete and long-lastingimprovements to be made in animals' lives. PETA India and its affiliates put CLE's promises to alleviate cruelty to animals to the test by offering a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) which spelled out specific actions which could be taken to reduce the suffering of animals used in the leather trade. After sitting on the MOU for nine months, the CLE ultimately refused even to negotiate with PETA.

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