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Go Cruelty Free
PREVENT A LITTER- DONATE
| What's Wrong With Leather? Millions of cows, pigs, sheep, and goats are slaughtered for their skin every year. They are castrated, branded, and dehorned and have their tails docked without anesthetics. Then they are trucked to slaughter, bled to death, and skinned. Leather is not simply a slaughterhouse byproduct—it’s a booming industry. The meat industry relies on skin sales to stay in business because the skin represents the most economically important byproduct of the meat- packing industry, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. |
| If you’re shopping for alternatives to Leather... Look under shoe tongues, on tags, and on the insides of belts and bags for fake leather buzzwords like “manmade leather,” “all-manmade materials,” “pleather,” and “synthetic.” No label or unsure? Ask a salesperson if it is “real” leather. Finally, the price may clue you in. Typically, synthetic leather sells at a fraction of the price of real leather! |
| Hint: You’ll find a continually changing stock of synthetic shoes if you drop into shoe warehouses and designer discount stores such as Off Broadway, Parade of Shoes, DSW, and Marshalls. It is just as easy to steer clear of skins at upscale department stores like Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, with most trendy and high-end lines, including Chinese Laundry, Kenneth Cole, Nine West, and Kate Spade, featuring pleather footwear and accessories. Whether you’re trying on pleather pumps at Payless or digging through Nordstrom’s racks for faux shearling, synthetic alternatives are easy to find and are often clearly labeled. Forget about out-of-the-way specialty shops. From discount department stores like Target and TJ Maxx to hip boutiques like Diesel and Paul Frank and everything in between (think Linens’n Things, JC Penney, even Victoria’s Secret), mainstream stores have become meccas for compassionate shoppers. |
