rediff.com Business News: Animal rights group forces US retailers to stop using Indian leather

A global animal rights group on Wednesday said that three leading US retailers -- Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic -- had agreed to stop using leather from India after a strong protest from international celebrities.

Jason Baker, spokesman for the India branch of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said in New Delhi that the decision came after rock star Chrissie Hynde led demonstrations outside their stores.

He said Hynde showed "shoppers photographs of how cruelly Indian cows and buffaloes are treated on their way to becoming jackets and handbags."

Baker termed it a significant victory. "It is a great day for us as the largest clothing sellers in the West have woken up to our call that if you don't treat cows with respect, you're not gonna have a leather industry left." "PETA is now eyeing Florsheim shoes, Hush Puppies and other stores that use Indian leather," he said, adding that the group had staged awareness campaigns in several Indian cities in the run-up to an anti-leather drive in the US in May.

"Demand for cheap leather in the West has spawned a grotesquely cruel underground industry in India. Because it is illegal to slaughter cows and young cattle in most Indian states, corrupt skin-dealers use bribes to smuggle the animals at night across borders," he said.

"The cows and calves are marched for days and crammed into lorries. Those who collapse have chilli peppers and tobacco rubbed into their eyes and their tails broken in an effort to keep them moving."

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney last month appealed to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to help stop the alleged abuse of Indian cows .

The veteran rocker recalled Mahatma Gandhi, India's independence hero who campaigned throughout his life for vegetarianism. Gandhi had once said that that a nation and its moral progress could be judged by how it treated animals.

Baker said others who had joined the protest included former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson Lee and Crispian Mills, the lead singer of the British group Kula Shaker.

©AFP 2000 All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.


	HOME \| BUSINESS \| AFP \| REPORT