PETA Swapped Bargains for ‘Blood’ and Sirens on ‘Free the Animals’ Friday—Check Out Our Eye-Catching Demos Across the Country!
November 29 marks the inaugural “Free the Animals” Friday, a powerful initiative by PETA supporters around the world. This international effort aims to inspire consumers to show compassion for animals by choosing vegan items during the busiest shopping day of the year. Fur has fallen out of favor due to its inherent cruelty, and it’s time for leather to face the same fate.
This year, PETA swapped bargains for “blood” and sirens on “Free the Animals” Friday.
On Black Friday, PETA made Coach stores across the country deal with a series of vibrant, dramatic demonstrations that called out the company for selling animal- and planet-killing leather. Armed with sirens, “bloody skinned cow heads,” “bloody” bags that read, “Coach: Leather Kills,” and more, PETA supporters and other animal advocates sent a message to the retailer: No bargain can wash the blood off Coach’s hands.
PETA’s Black Friday campaign set its sights on “the new fur”—that is, leather—to call attention to the suffering of more than a billion cows and other animals slaughtered every year by the global leather industry and inspire holiday shoppers to choose compassionate vegan options.
Cows have friends, hold grudges against other cows, and mourn when a loved one dies. At slaughterhouses, cows may be skinned and dismembered while they’re still conscious—after enduring castration, tail docking, and dehorning, often without any painkillers, on farms. A PETA exposé of the world’s largest leather processor, which has been linked to Coach, showed that workers brand calves on the face, beat cows and bulls, and shock them with electric prods. The leather industry also contributes to the climate catastrophe, land devastation, deforestation, pollution, water contamination, and loss of biodiversity.
Together, we can make a deal with the fashion industry: our business for its compassion.
“Free the Animals” Friday is the perfect time to get loud for animals and let holiday shoppers around the world know how much good they could do by making a simple change like shopping vegan.
Companies like Coach continue to sell leather, ignoring animals’ cries of pain. We need to get loud if we want to make a difference.
Looking for other ways to speak up for animals on “Free the Animals” Friday? Follow these steps:
- Send a message to Coach letting it know you want it to switch to vegan leather:
- During business hours, call Coach’s headquarters at 212-594-1850 (dial 0 and ask to leave a message for the CEO, Todd Kahn) and urge the company to stop profiting from the slaughter of animals and switch to vegan leather.
- Follow up by commenting on Coach’s photos on Instagram.
- Stand outside Coach stores and distribute leaflets. E-mail [email protected] for anti-leather leaflets and a “purse” that reads, “Coach: Ban Leather.”
- Place “Leather Takes Lives” hangtags where people will see them.
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