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June 6, 2000

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Consensus against Indian leather grows

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Nitish S Rele

Retailer giant Nordstrom recently joined the ranks of Liz Clairborne, Clarks, J Crew, Fiorucci and Florsheim in stopping the use of Indian leather.

The leather campaign took off after the US-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals produced a video that showed cows and buffaloes injured and suffocated in overloaded trucks on their way to slaughterhouses in India.

Thereafter, the Council for Leather Exports agreed to take action against cattle cruelty. Since then, PETA has imposed a 60-day moratorium on pressuring overseas customers of Indian leather from buying such goods.

But now PETA is moving on to a new venue altogether.

"We are trying right now to get the chief minister of Calcutta to invite an expert task force to come to the ancient Calcutta abattoir to advise the state government what needs to be done," PETA spokeswoman Ingrid Newkirk told rediff.com.

"We already have an invitation from Bangalore to review practices in its 80-year old slaughterhouse and from Vijay Mathankar, additional municipal commissioner of Bombay, where thousands of cows and other cattle are killed daily at Deonar, one of the most notorious slaughterhouses, under conditions of appalling filth and cruelty. Cows there are literally left to bake to death in the sun," Newkirk said.

PETA is urging the commissioner, who covers this area, to prohibit overloaded lorries full of fallen, suffocated, injured animals from entering Greater Bombay. The CLE has decided not to accept skins from Deonar until conditions improve.

Newkirk said that PETA is heartened by the outpouring of concern for the abused cattle, coming in from all over the world, from religious leaders and celebrities, from retailers and from the public.

"We are now considering a consumer boycott of the worst offending states if improvements are not made... Specifically, if Tamil Nadu does not stop overloaded, unpadded, slippery floored lorries from leaving its state and in his home district, and if Minister for Railways Mamata Banerjee does not take action to stop the horror of massive numbers of cattle dying en route to slaughter," she said.

The bottom line is going to be the consumer, according to Newkirk. Indian annual leather exports are worth $ 1.7 billion.

"I grew up in India. Forty years ago there was some respect for cows -- in deed, not just in word. Today, the west's influence has made more meat-eaters and leather-wearers. Gandhi would spin in his grave."

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