Leather associations call on Esprit to distance itself from PETA
The Global Leather Coordinating Committee (GLCC) has sent an open letter to Esprit CEO Jose Manuel Martínez Gutiérrez urging him to distance his company from claims made by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) regarding the leather manufacturing industry.
Esprit has adopted PETA’s Certified Vegan Leather mark on some of its footwear lines.
In the letter, the GLCC notes that animal hides and skins are an inevitable byproduct of global meat and dairy consumption, disputing allegations by the animal rights group that cattle, pigs and other food-producing animals are harvested for leather production.
It says: “PETA regularly, and wrongfully, claims the global leather industry slaughters animals solely for the purpose of leather production and that this involves universal cruelty to the animals. These claims are based on a wanton disregard of the truth. Animal hides and skins are a natural and inevitable byproduct of meat and dairy consumption. They represent, on average, less than 10% of the overall value of individual meat or dairy-producing animals. As long as meat and dairy products continue to be consumed as part of a nutritionally balanced diet, these byproducts will continue to be created in a humane manner.”
It adds that alternative materials, such as the polyurethanes used to produce plastics for synthetic footwear components, are fossil-fuel based derivatives produced from oil. Any claims regarding the “sustainability” of petroleum-based synthetic alternatives must also bear the accompanying burden of fossil-fuel extraction, refinement, transportation, and associated environmental costs.
It continues: “The industry has established widely adopted processes and technologies for the production of leather under safe and sustainable conditions. Chemicals used in the tanning process are the same legitimately approved substances which are used in many other synthetic and textile products. The vast majority of global leather tanners have implemented these technologies using the right products and operating under safe condition for their workers.
“Of course, there are a small number of leather tanners in unregulated markets still operating below a minimum acceptable level of production standard. The leather industry is not alone in facing this problem. However, together with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and other international development organisations, the industry is doing its utmost to change this unfortunate reality. PETA does not recognise any of this work, instead choosing to sensationalise and aggrandise isolated examples of objectionable and obscene behaviour by individuals operating outside of the mainstream of the industry.”
The GLCC is made up of three leading leather industry organisations: The International Council of Hides, Skins and Leather Traders Association, the International Council of Tanners and the International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemists Societies.
Log on to footwearbiz's sister site, Nothing to Hide, to read our essays published in defence of incorrect and misleading information about the leather industry.
