Tesla to Face Scrutiny for Continued Leather Use at Annual Meeting
PETA Will Call On CEO Elon Musk to Nix Leather Steering Wheels
For Immediate Release:
June 10, 2019
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
“Will Tesla make all future models 100% leather-free starting next year and confirm that its Model Y will be vegan as promised?” That’s the question that a PETA representative will ask executives at Tesla—which already offers exclusively vegan leather seats—at the company’s annual meeting on Tuesday.
When: Tuesday, June 11, 2:30 p.m.
Where: Computer History Museum, 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View
“Elon Musk is well aware that the leather industry is as toxic to the Earth as it is cruel to cows,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Tesla to stand by its pledge to make its Model Y completely vegan and to steer clear of leather in all its models.”
PETA notes that cows killed for leather often endure extreme crowding as well as castration and tail-docking without pain relief. A PETA video exposé of the world’s largest leather processor revealed that gentle cows and bulls were branded on the face, electroshocked, and beaten before being killed. In addition, animal agriculture—which includes the leather industry—is responsible for 14 to 18% of all greenhouse-gas emissions.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, which is a supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
