As we have seen in recent years, the leather industry is under increasing attack from people armed with little more than a misplaced sense of the truth.
Arguments against livestock production have been linked to climate change and the scourge of COVID-19, and on the face of it to the vast majority, these arguments would appear reasoned and sound. People blindly accept that "billions" of animals not only pollute the planet but are slaughtered every year to feed our desire for leather goods – although they do not appear so curious as to where the resulting meat mountains are being stored.
We are so used to the apparently compelling arguments against livestock and leather production that the misinformed “facts” have entered the public psyche, with little thought given to the agenda behind the headlines. As the trade association for the British leather industry, we are in possession of the facts, but are rarely consulted before a specious article defaming leather is published.
One such example came to our attention recently, an article entitled ‘Think on your feet’, in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine, Issue 352, September/October 2020. We are unable to show the article due to copyright reasons, but all the usual tropes were there. We have written a factual rebuttal which you can see here Letter to Resurgence magazine_Aug 2020.
This article and others like it affect us all. As people working in the leather industry, we need you to tell us where you see such arguments being made in order for us to present the truth, which we should all share far and wide. Let's work together to locate where the facts are being misapplied, and amplify our voices to speak truth to the misled consumer.
