On one side is PETA, the tireless association that fights “for animal rights”. On the other is Nicole Neumann, Argentine vegan VIP whom also fights for animal rights (in picture, taken from Instagram). A dialogue begins between the two: one that summarizes (and resolves), the debate on leather.
Because while PETA takes it out on the material, Neumann attacks the radical association, while on live television, to explain a simple truth that maybe isn’t so trivial: until the world continues to consume meat, utilizing clothing or accessories made of leather is, for vegans as well, an act of sustainability.
PETA takes it out on leather
Let’s start with PETA. The association, it is known, doesn’t let an occasion to attack luxury brands and designers go by, as it aims at convincing them abandon animal materials. The latest attack was made on General Motors, Detroit-based group that owns auto brands such as Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet.
PETA’s request is “simple”: GM is to stop using leather on all the vehicles it manufactures. Since the radical association knows that (in its case), there is strength in unity, they try to get their followers to write to GM in mass numbers. Mailbombing is, in this case, used as a virtual weapon to make their point more persuasive.
Nicole’s truth
In regards to the recent episode, Nicole Neumann found herself under attack from Argentina’s vegan population. Why? She is notorious for being an animal activist, but has no problem wearing clothing made of leather. According to the radical green, Nicole, in doing so, goes against herself and the animal-welfare belief. “I have a very happy and coherent life.
If people want to justify their misery by pointing out supposed mistakes made by others, then it’s their problem – she defended herself on a television show -. It’s not in my power to stop the world from eating meat, so as to cancel the need to have tanneries”. What the model is trying to explain is the relationship between the meat industry and the leather segment. The “factor” chain is “opposite”, to the one people imagine.
“Friends with tanneries explained to me – she continues -, that they buy something that slaughterhouses consider to be waste. Animals are killed inside slaughterhouses for their meat”.
The relationship between factors
So, Nicole Neumann says that “is nobody consumed meat, tanning wouldn’t exist and the same goes for leather”, explaining to PETA that its attacks are senseless. The percentage of animals actually raised for the hides is almost non-existent.
Bovines and ovine are farmed for their meat, milk and wool. All tanning does is collect what they consider waste and, with the idea of a circular economy in mind, transforms it into a noble and sustainable material. If everyone stopped buying leather items while the world continued to consume meat, the outcome would be just one: hides would have to enter the waste cycle. Opposite to that, those that buy leather items aren’t “accessories to the crime” (to use strong language, as PETA does) of killing an animal. Nicole Neumann understands it, but many still don’t.
Read also:
- Don’t call it leather if it’s plastic: Argentina’s tanning segment makes its move
- The video that disproves all fake news over tanning, animals and environment
- “Defending leather”: Volga Tannery intervenes on Russia’s media
