Push for Leather Ban to Head to H&M’s Boardroom

For Immediate Release:
10 May 2017

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

PUSH FOR LEATHER BAN TO HEAD TO H&M’S BOARDROOM
As a Shareholder, PETA US Will Ask the Retailer to Ditch Cruel and Toxic Leather Products

Solna, Sweden– H&M maintains that “no animal should ever suffer in the name of fashion” – so why is it still selling leather? That’s the question that a PETA US representative will ask during the company’s annual meeting today in a call for it to commit to using only vegan leather.

“Every leather item on H&M’s shelves comes from an industry that is hell on Earth for sensitive cows”, says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “Animals are suffering right now, and PETA is calling on H&M to live up to its claims of being an ethical, sustainable company by exclusively selling stylish, high-quality vegan leather as it has done in its Conscious collection.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – notes that the millions of cows whose skins are turned into leather endure dehorning and castration, often without painkillers. They’re loaded onto crowded lorries and transported through all weather extremes to abattoirs, where they’re strung up and killed, sometimes while fully conscious. A PETA exposé of the world’s largest leather processor – from which H&M has purchased in the past – revealed that calves are branded on the face and that gentle cows and bulls are electroshocked, and beaten.

In addition, H&M claims to be a sustainable company – but animal agriculture, which includes the leather industry, is responsible for 51 per cent of all greenhouse-gas emissions. Turning animal skins into leather requires 130 different chemicals, including cyanide, and people who work in and live near tanneries suffer from exposure to these toxins.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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