What Can We Learn From Dictators’ Wardrobes? PETA’s New Ads Show You
The world is alarmed as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un ramp up an actual war and talk of war, respectively. So PETA is flyposting the area outside the United Nations Headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York, with messages about just one way to avoid being like them—by not wearing leather.
Producing leather is more dangerous than most people realize. In India, which is a huge leather producer, people living downstream from tanneries have increased rates of cancer. The leather industry is a mega-polluter of rivers and streams, and it perpetuates cattle production—a source of greenhouse gas emissions. What’s more, animals don’t want to die for a jacket.
Our appeals urge the public to dress without funding violence by refraining from purchasing leather items. The visuals were created by the Archer Troy ad agency. PETA will also display the ad featuring Putin on the street directly outside the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Animal agriculture—which includes the leather industry, a major part of meat and dairy profit margins—is responsible for nearly one-fifth of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
The World Bank reports that cattle ranching has caused over 80% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest since 1970, and because of fires—many of which are deliberately set to clear land to raise cows and grow crops to feed them—along with hotter temperatures and droughts, parts of the Amazon are now emitting more carbon dioxide than they can absorb.
Turning skin into leather requires significant energy and dangerous chemicals, including formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and cyanide-based oils, dyes, and finishes.
Everyone can choose good over evil and peace over violence by rejecting the harmful leather industry, which drives the climate catastrophe and kills cows by the millions.
Sustainable vegan leather made from apples, cork, corn, grapes, mushrooms, paper, pineapples, soy, or tea mimics the properties of leather without the cruelty to animals or environmental devastation.
Always opt for sophisticated vegan materials that protect the planet and make it something worth fighting for in the face of global threats.
