Here's what kind of leather you might be getting if you buy a cheap jacket from China...

[BobJ]

Hold onto your hat, it's worse than storse:

SNIPPET:

"When American consumers shop for leather goods, it probably doesn’t enter their minds that their new belts, bags or shoes could be made not from cows or pigs but from cats and dogs. But not only is it a possibility, it’s hard for consumers to know what they have been sold.

Almost all that dog or cat leather comes from China. Now changes in Chinese culture, more pressure from the US and an upcoming trade agreement are combining to undermine this contraband trade."

LINK:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/31/dog-cat-leather-china-us-congress-trade-peta

WARNING! This [following] video is not for the faint of heart... it's extremely shocking and heartbreaking:

http://www.downvids.net/undercover-china-dog-leather-investigation-576805.html

 

[willyto]

What kind of savage would do that to those dogs?

I don't have any words to express how I feel.

 

[AdeeC]

My dad told me that in near starvation conditions in post war Europe most of the cats and dogs in his area disappeared. He also admitted that he ate some of them. The choice was easy. In China having a long history of disaster and famine far worse in frequency and intensity than in the west, eating all kinds of beasts was a necessity. It was only as far back as around 1960 when 40-50 million people died of starvation over there. It is good now that things in China have improved to the level that there is debate and catalyst for change. Now it would be also good if the hunting of wild animals purely for sport be eradicated as also battery farming of chickens, pigs and cattle worldwide.

 

[LuvMyMan]

Hold onto your hat, it's worse than storse:

SNIPPET:

"When American consumers shop for leather goods, it probably doesn’t enter their minds that their new belts, bags or shoes could be made not from cows or pigs but from cats and dogs. But not only is it a possibility, it’s hard for consumers to know what they have been sold.

Almost all that dog or cat leather comes from China. Now changes in Chinese culture, more pressure from the US and an upcoming trade agreement are combining to undermine this contraband trade."

LINK:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/31/dog-cat-leather-china-us-congress-trade-peta

WARNING! This [following] video is not for the faint of heart... it's extremely shocking and heartbreaking:

http://www.downvids.net/undercover-china-dog-leather-investigation-576805.html

That makes me desire to pack up and head over there. Of course I can take my Baseball Bat ans show those putrid people how it feels to be on the receiving end of a home run.

I sure hope someone will get those people and lock them up.

 

[nick123]

Well I have my nylons...

 

[AdeeC]

Here is another shameful business connected with Greyhound racing. And not in a developing country. In this case motivated by pure greed and gambling. Horrible things happen to dogs and bait animals in this industry and has so for over a 100 years. All quietly been swept under the carpet of course. Good thing that some State Gvovernments are now going to ban it.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-20/nsw-greyhound-racing-killings-hunter-valley-mass-grave/7644012

 

[Stearmen]

Wasn't dog fur used on some of the U.S. Army cold weather gear pre WWII through the early N2Bs?

 

[AeroFan_07]

I agree this is horrible. It should not happen. However look a little deeper into the article itself and note this line, which underscores a deeper root of the group that sent out this message: According to Peta, which is calling on American consumers to forgo all leather goods in favor of vegan substitutes,
Remember this is Thier agenda. They will stop at nothing to see it accomplished. Something to keep in mind.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Wasn't dog fur used on some of the U.S. Army cold weather gear pre WWII through the early N2Bs?

Coyote

 

[ProteinNerd]

Here is another shameful business connected with Greyhound racing. And not in a developing country. In this case motivated by pure greed and gambling. Horrible things happen to dogs and bait animals in this industry and has so for over a 100 years. All quietly been swept under the carpet of course. Good thing that some State Gvovernments are now going to ban it.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-20/nsw-greyhound-racing-killings-hunter-valley-mass-grave/7644012

The ban is a great thing, I just cant help but think of all the poor dogs that will be killed now because their owners cant make money off them anymore

 

[navetsea]

discrimination based on cuteness?
is it more OK for goat or cow, or horse, or pig to be turned into leather and when the animal is somewhat cuter then the whole world rage about it.
people in some country eat dog meat, and if their skin is also used as a leather, as long as it is not falsely labelled as other hide why not?

I have cats as pet and also had a dog pet, I don't want my pets to be killed and turned into leather, but if in another society these animal is just considered as lifestock, to be consumed then so be it, if they are not endangered species.

in animal shelters abandoned pets have to be put down everyday...think about them too, they were pets and the owners left them behind, that is more cruel than just eating dog and use their skin as leather, at least the dog who gave its life has a purpose in life.

 

[nick123]

^That's a good point. I think the only solution for sustainability is to eat myself.

 

[navetsea]

Tanneries around the world should fund a group of scientists to clone skin cells of different animals and make a perfect leather by square sheets cheap, green, sustainable, waste-less leather for all mankind

 

[navetsea]

^That's a good point. I think the only solution for sustainability is to eat myself.

when we lose weight... basically we do that already

 

[Justhandguns]

Tanneries around the world should fund a group of scientists to clone skin cells of different animals and make a perfect leather by square sheets cheap, green, sustainable, waste-less leather for all mankind

Unfortunately, with the current cell culture technologies, we can only grow small amount of skin for engraftments in burn victims.

In the mean time, somewhere on the opposite side of the world......
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/36911614

I guess you can leave your steerhide or naked cowhide jackets at home when you travel to India.

 

[Peter Bowden]

I am guilty of sticking my head in the sand.I love leather,like fur and have just donated some non-leather jackets to the local RSPCA branch.

 

[Feraud]

discrimination based on cuteness?
is it more OK for goat or cow, or horse, or pig to be turned into leather and when the animal is somewhat cuter then the whole world rage about it.
people in some country eat dog meat, and if their skin is also used as a leather, as long as it is not falsely labelled as other hide why not?

I have cats as pet and also had a dog pet, I don't want my pets to be killed and turned into leather, but if in another society these animal is just considered as lifestock, to be consumed then so be it, if they are not endangered species.

in animal shelters abandoned pets have to be put down everyday...think about them too, they were pets and the owners left them behind, that is more cruel than just eating dog and use their skin as leather, at least the dog who gave its life has a purpose in life.

This is a very good point. We'd like to sit back, point fingers, and justify how we're nothing like those barbarians. The truth is we've all contributed to what some understandably call an animal holocaust.

 

[zebedee]

In 10 years of living in China I have only ever seen dog meat in one province. If you really want to be appalled, check out Korean dog-preparation, but, again, it isn't consumed by many people. The majority of Chinese find the idea of cat or dog meat repulsive (it's on the news and the tone is condemnatory), and its sale is viewed as deception committed by usually desperately poor people. Chinese consumers are as irritated by fraud and fake goods as much as anyone else- perhaps more so as it is a matter of national shame produced by huge disparities in income and the need to make money to stay above starvation level. I doubt that anyone on this forum would buy a leather jacket made in China, in any case.

'Natural causes' that horses die of can include deliberate starvation. We hope that it doesn't happen, of course, but, were a Chinese documentary team to investigate it in the US/UK, viewer reaction here would be horror at such cruelty and barbarism, too, and the phrase 'these people' would be flung around as a generalisation, although I doubt that any Chinese commentator would be imagining assaulting people with sports goods.

 

[Mark]

Chose not to watch the video as I have seen this stuff before (Chinese restaurant owner skinning a dog alive!). They eat dog all over South East Asia too. I have seen them packed into cages on the back of pick-ups on the way to restaurants. It is not so much about eating dog or any other animal it is about how it is done. In poorer parts of the world there seems so little concern or compassion for other creatures a reflection on how hard their own lives are I guess.

 

[Carlos840]

discrimination based on cuteness?
is it more OK for goat or cow, or horse, or pig to be turned into leather and when the animal is somewhat cuter then the whole world rage about it.
people in some country eat dog meat, and if their skin is also used as a leather, as long as it is not falsely labelled as other hide why not?

I have cats as pet and also had a dog pet, I don't want my pets to be killed and turned into leather, but if in another society these animal is just considered as lifestock, to be consumed then so be it, if they are not endangered species.

in animal shelters abandoned pets have to be put down everyday...think about them too, they were pets and the owners left them behind, that is more cruel than just eating dog and use their skin as leather, at least the dog who gave its life has a purpose in life.

Completely agree, it's all about different points of view.

For more than a billion people cows are sacred, yet we are ok eating them and making jackets out of them.
The national dish of peru is Guinea Pig, for us they are cute pets, for them they are food.
In Venice, which has in the past suffered from food shortage, they call cats "roof rabbits"...
In France horse meat is still sold and eaten on a regular basis, you still actually find butchers that only sell horse meat.

It's easy to be offended by things like that if you don't know about other cultures, the fact that we treat dogs and cats like familly members doesn't mean everyone has to feel the same.

Saying that, i agree that the source of the leather should be cleraly labeled and controled, but if someone in china is happy to wear a dog jacket, good for him.

One more thing worth mentionning too, in Belgium alone each year 30 000 cats and 20 000 dogs are put down because they are abandoned. An abandonned animal is given a week in a shelter to be adopted, if it isn't it is put down and cremated, how is that any better? This is for Belgium alone, a tiny country with 11 million people, now imagine how many pets are being killed every year in a place as populated as the USA?