If Fur Is Taboo Why IS Leather OK?

"In a meat eating world where we wear leather for shoes, the discussion of fur is childish." - Karl Lagerfeld, designer.

I have to admit, he has a point, either we stand against using animals for clothing and food, or we don't. How can one aspect be acceptable and the other not? OK, let´s take food out of the equation - one can argue that humans are natural carnivores and although there are many of us vegetarians who survive quite happily without meat, a vegan world will never exist, let´s be realistic about that.

But animals for clothing and shoes, is it really necessary? Well of course not, but skins and leathers continue to be favoured by the wealthy, maybe as a status symbol as much as for any practical benefit. The argument about fur has been running for as long as I can remember, and when supermodels starred in the shock PETA campaign "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" there was a huge move away from fur clothing. The year was 1991, the exuberant 80's were in the past and some progress was made. Although that campaign still runs today fur still finds its way onto the catwalks however, and as such continues to cause heated debate.

But why not so much fuss about leather? We tend to assume that leather comes from cows, but in fact it can come from just about anything with a skin - pigs, goats, sheep, alligators, ostriches, kangaroos, and even dogs and cats, which are slaughtered for their skin in China and exported around the world. Quite often leather is not labelled so it is impossible to know from what source it originated. Countries like China and India have little or no animal welfare procedures in place, and even in countries that have, animals have to endure the horrors of factory farming - overcrowding and deprivation being just the tip of the iceberg. Skin is the most economically important by-product of the meat industry so buying leather directly contributes to factory farming and slaughter houses.

Yet people generally are far more likely to accept leather than fur, which we now generally perceive to be cruel and unnecessary. Is it because a mink is cute but a cow or pig isn't? Are we really that shallow to differentiate between what is acceptable and what isn't on the grounds of attractiveness? Or is it that we feel there are no alternatives to real leather, especially when it comes to shoes - man made synthetic shoes are neither comfortable nor attractive. With this in mind eco designers are looking at producing high quality vegan leathers, made from plant based materials. As with any new and innovative product, initially they will seem expensive but if they are truly a good alternative then leather could be a thing of the past. We live in hope.

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