"I admit to having worn suede and leather myself for a while, but you just never felt clean, and it's degenerate anyway to use animal skins." --Andy Warhol
In the bling bling world of the National Basketball Association (NBA), leather is on its way out. Not the shoes, boots, sneakers, pants, or ubiquitous motorcycle jacket...I'm talking about the ball itself.
"Spalding urged the NBA to switch to a composite model because it was having trouble securing 'consistent' leather to keep manufacturing the ball that has been used for decades," writes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. New Jersey Net Jason Kidd is skeptical. "They probably couldn't sell (the leather ball)," he said. "It was an indoor model. A lot of kids play outside, so maybe that was the reason." Whatever the reason for the switch, here's a little something the $1.5-billion-and-100-million-animal-skins-per-year U.S. leather industry would probably prefer you didn't know.
"Leather is not simply a slaughterhouse byproduct," writes animal issues columnist Carla Bennett. "It's a booming industry and an important part of the slaughter trade, since skin accounts for approximately 50 percent of the total byproduct value of cattle." Leather is also made from slaughtered horses, sheep, lambs, goats, and pigs. "When dairy cows' production declines, for example, their skin is made into leather; the hides of their offspring, 'veal' calves, are made into high-priced calfskin," adds Bennett. "Thus, the economic success of the slaughterhouse (and the factory farm) is directly linked to the sale of leather goods."
Another tactic for procuring animal skins is hunting. Species such as zebras, bison, water buffaloes, boars, deer, kangaroos, elephants, eels, sharks, dolphins, seals, walruses, frogs, crocodiles, lizards, and snakes are murdered solely for their hides. These animals are often endangered or illegally poached-and death is rarely swift or painless. Alligators are clubbed with axes and hammers and may suffer for hours. Reptiles are skinned alive to achieve suppleness in the leather and may take days to die. Kid goats are boiled alive.
A clever diversionary tactic of leather makers is to label their products "biodegradable" while pointing out that synthetic versions are usually petroleum-based. However, says Sally Clinton in Vegetarian Journal, the tanning process acts to "stabilize the collagen or protein fibers so that they are no longer biodegradable." In turn, the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology explains, "On the basis of quantity of energy consumed per unit of product produced, the leather-manufacturing industry would be categorized with the aluminum, paper, steel, cement, and petroleum-manufacturing industries as a gross consumer of energy." The primary reason for this is that over 95 percent of U.S. leather is chrome tanned. "All wastes containing chromium are considered hazardous by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)," writes Clinton.
The PETA website details "the threat to human health from the highly elevated levels of lead, cyanide, and formaldehyde in the ground water near tanneries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the incidence of leukemia among residents in an area surrounding one tannery in Kentucky was five times the national average. People who work in tanneries are dying of cancer caused by exposure to dimethylformamide and other toxic chemicals used to process and dye the leather. The coal tar derivatives used are extremely potent cancer-causing agents. According to a study released by the New York State Department of Health, more than half of all testicular cancer victims work in tanneries."
Whether the NBA realizes it or not, its decision was a slam dunk.
Thank you Mr. Z for illuminating many more conscious citizens with your article. You've well outlined some of the many tentacled forms of animal and environmental abuse and degradation inherent within the slaughter/leather industry. I have been a dedicated environmental/animal activist (radical ecologist!) for over 15 years. I can honestly say that you're high profile exposure of the realities of leather comes as long overdue but greatly welcomed compliment to the radical work that's been underway on behalf of animals and the Earth for over 3 decades.
Would you please consider further contributions exposing the horrors of the meat and hunting industries? I will forward a piece that I've prepared called "Ten Reasons to Oppose Sport Hunting" for you to peruse.
Thanks again sir,
Glenn Kirk
Ten Reasons to Oppose Sport Hunting:
By Glenn A. Kirk
1. Environmental -
Hunting-oriented game management is environmentally destructive. Outdated conservation strategies based on pre-ecological thought and reality, most conceived over 70 years ago, are still being practiced by game agencies. Backed by influential hunting groups such as “Ducks Unlimited” or “Wild Turkey Federation”, hunter-dominated commissions manipulate animal populations and their habitat for increased hunter satisfaction, while boosting hunting license sale revenues in support of their salaries.
In a time when people are desperately trying to understand and heal an increasingly endangered environment, disruptive alterations intended to stimulate ever greater populations of target animals such as deer is not only bad science, it’s reckless and foolhardy.
2. Biological -
Employing biologically perverse methods of manipulating deer populations - skewing sex ratios of deer to propagate fawn production while vainly attempting to reduce herd size, or genetic breeding schemes to grow larger antlered trophy bucks - works to undermine the biologic and genetic integrity of species. Select species management leaves weaker individuals to reproduce and carry on species’ vitality, eg., growing numbers of smaller and “spike” bucks. Hunting functions to undermine the laws of nature, contrary to natural selection, by continually removing prime (trophy) individuals. Sport hunting can be seen as evolution in reverse.
3. Hunting is cruel -
Sport hunting causes immense suffering to individual wild animals and their species. It is gratuitously cruel because unlike natural predation most hunters kill for pleasure and other kicks. There is no justification for its' existence in a civilized world.
4. Reverence for life -
Sadly, our planet is becoming a much more violent place to live, for humans and non-humans alike. Sport hunting is morally indefensible because there is no justification for killing sentient beings in the name of recreation. People who teach their children that it is acceptable to maim and kill animals for “sport” are contributing to a growing disrespect for all life that currently plagues society. Psychological and sociological studies demonstrate a strong correlation between animal cruelty by young people and antisocial and criminal behavior later in life. This is not a trend society can afford to tolerate.
5. Safety -
Hunting accidents injure and kill hundreds of people and thousands of domestic animals each year. Though accurate records aren’t kept by over- stretched Game Agencies, non-government animal protection organizations (NGO’s) are inundated by complaints from fearful and outraged citizens whose pets, homes, properties, livestock, and family members are shot at and killed by irresponsible hunters.
The fact is Game Agencies work to place millions of trigger-happy hunters into the public domain while they openly admit to shrinking agency budgets which cannot provide for adequate policing for public safety. How long would society tolerate any other sporting activity, such as football or bowling, if it caused such carnage and loss?
6. Constitutional issue -
The Supreme Court of the U.S. declared wildlife a national treasure “held in trust for all citizens”. Currently, wildlife agencies manipulate wildlife and its habitat primarily for the benefit of a small minority of Americans known as sport hunters, in violation of that Supreme Court ruling. This is unconstitutional.
Hunter domination over councils of wildlife management must be replaced by democratic representation for the 95% non-hunting public to prevent the continued abuse of government power.
7. The Ecosystem Reserve concept -
Whereas wildlife is managed primarily for recreational hunting and the enhancement of yields, in sharp contrast the ecosystem approach intentionally preserves biological diversity, rather than doing so incidental to maximizing one or a few kinds of organisms for hunting. Concerned citizens must demand their state Game Agencies implement Ecosystem Reserves instead of public deer ranching on “Wildlife Management Units”. This reform would ensure the preservation of the broadest degree of life-sustaining biodiversity.
8. Conservation -
Conservation means “the deliberate, planned guarding and protecting of something precious such as wildlife and our environment”. In fact, hunting license fees are used to manipulate a comparatively few game species into overpopulation at the expense of a much larger number of non-game species, which includes the extermination of natural predators. This contributes to the loss of biological diversity, genetic integrity and ecological balance of wildlife. Hunters’ licenses pay for environmental degradation and not conservation as is claimed.
9. Looting taxpayer dollars -
Millions of dollars of general tax revenues are allocated to the budgets of state wildlife departments ostensibly to subsidize wildlife “conservation” programs. In the state of Virginia, organized hunter pressure has influenced the legislature to impose a 2% sales tax on the purchase of a variety of outdoor goods, including equipment for popular non-hunting activities such as wildlife viewing, backpacking, and other non-consumptive sporting activities. The financial resources are not dedicated to environmental programs or preserving endangered species. Our scarce public dollars are quietly without public knowledge being diverted into destructive hunting programs.
Additionally, State Fish and Game Agencies administer game programs on tens of millions of acres of military land and hundreds of millions of acres of public land and national forests. Virtually all of this land was purchased with general funds, while taxpayers also contribute substantially to the annual administration costs. Most of this land is open to hunting, as are most of our National Wildlife Refuges.
Although the vast majority of taxpayers do not hunt and lack a propaganda apparatus to announce their contributions, they certainly do “pay the tab for wildlife conservation”. The question is, why should taxpayers pay the tab for hunter welfare programs?
10. “Taking Back The Woods”!
A strong case needs to be made today by the 95% majority of Americans who do not hunt that sport hunting and wildlife management for that purpose is an unacceptable abuse of animals and our environment. People who have in the past quietly tolerated the annual war against wildlife waged in their communities have begun to question its legitimacy and acceptability in modern life. Many are experiencing rising levels of distaste for the horrendous cruelty and suffering inherent in the blood sports.
The first step towards reclaiming the woods is to challenge hunting programs that are dangerously inconsistent with modern realities and ethics. Biologically degrading hunts that clearly cater to trophy seeking hunters, such as killing threatened wolves, bears, and swans, do not reflect the will or environmental concerns of the majority and should be strongly opposed. Writing letters opposing hunting to the editors of local and national newspapers is a very effective way of raising awareness. Holding lawful demonstrations, even by small groups, against local or regional hunts, generally elevates the issue to high profile and draws helpful publicity.
Taking any initial step on behalf of wildlife and the Earth, for any one or all of the above reasons, is an important and courageous act. And don’t forget, hunters do not own wildlife or the environment, they are only taking advantage of a state sanctioned privilege. And like all privileges, when abused they should be taken away.
Boston, Va
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on Saturday, October 7, 2006 at 7:16:46 AM
