Taking action

After months of further inactivity, Sam Setter has finally taken the bull by the horns and set up a leather industry website which he hopes will give a platform for putting the records straight. Impatient with all the talk and lack of action, our Sam has found himself an ally in Joanna de Paredes of the International Trade Council in Geneva. Together they have set up a site [http://www.worldleather.org] which they hope will gather together everything that is good and positive about the industry and which we can all share in. Despite the urging of industry spokesmen such as Tony Mossop, president of the International Council of Tanners, and despite the fact that we are getting a constant hammering from PETA, we still lack a proactive voice to stick up for our industry. The leather industry in India is back under attack for the inhumane treatment of animals in their country which it is claimed are killed for their hides and skins. Since this is a downright lie and the animals are slaughtered for their meat why doesn't the industry rise up and protest vociferously? Sadly the leather industry is the public face of the more gory end of the business and by attacking the Indian leather industry they are striking the government where it really hurts, through the loss of lucrative foreign exchange earning contracts. But it isn't just India that is affected. If the consumer gets the idea that leather isn't exactly ethical it could follow the fur industry which was decimated by publicity campaigns labelling women who wore fur as murderers and mindlessly vain. The number of hides and skins available for tanning is finite and dependent on the meat industry. But whether the leather industry is profitable or not depends on the vagaries of fashion. Keeping the consumer happy is the root of many of our industry's problems where unrealistic test methods and ludicrously low limits for constituents such as formaldehyde are involving tanners in ever increasing costs to meet ever more stringent requirements. What we need is a voice of sanity and reason. We need to educate the public on a grand scale. We need to speak with one voice. So let us all get behind this new website, present a united front and do something positive as a world industry.