American Red Cross Bans Leather Gloves After PETA Push
Company Nabs Vegan Chocolates in Thanks for Eco- and Animal-Friendly Move
For Immediate Release:
March 10, 2020
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Following communications with PETA, the American Red Cross pledged to replace the leather gloves in its flood and fire kits with leather-free ones—a move that helps save cows, who are castrated and branded, endure their tails being cut off, and face even worse abuse before their throats are slit in slaughterhouses. In thanks, PETA has sent over a box of delicious vegan chocolates.
“The American Red Cross did the right thing in sparing cows and the planet the cruelty and devastation of the leather industry,” says PETA Senior Director of Corporate Affairs Anne Brainard. “This is yet another sign that leather-free fabrics and PETA-approved vegan leather—made from recycled plastic, pineapple, fruit pulp, coffee grounds, and other durable materials—are being widely embraced more than ever before.”
A PETA video exposé of Brazil’s JBS S.A.—the world’s largest leather processor—revealed that cows and bulls were branded on the face, electroshocked, and beaten before being killed for meat and leather. After a lifetime of intense confinement, cows are typically transported to slaughterhouses, where their throats are slit and some are even skinned and dismembered while they’re still conscious.
Animal agriculture—which includes the leather industry—is responsible for nearly a fifth of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions and is devastating the planet on a global scale. More than 80% of the Amazon rainforest that’s been cleared since 1970 is used for grazing or for growing food for cattle who are slaughtered for meat and leather. Recent reports found that in three environmental-impact categories—water scarcity, climate change, and overall environmental well-being—cow leather has almost three times the negative environmental impact of polyurethane leather.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
