How is leather made from animals

This is due to the fact the upper layer has a much tighter fibre structure making it more durable. When treated correctly this layer makes for a stunning and supple leather. The bottom layer of the hide will be kept for cheaper leathers with less overall quality than the top layer. These tend to be used for top grain and split leathers and are most commonly used for shoes and bags.

I notice from the various articles I read I seem to become enlightened on a particular part of the process that might have been glossed over in others. In this one, the description of a Staker machine for preparing the leather for its final finishing through stretching the surface. I found to be especially enlightening. About Our Values. Our Workshop. Gift Ideas Gifts for Him. Gifts for Her. Stocking Fillers. Gift Sets. Travel Bags. Valet Trays. Artist Rolls. Tool Rolls and Belts. Knife Rolls.

Hairdressers Bags. Your cart is empty. Thanks for taking the time to put all of this together. Jim June 18, Chris Canton April 01, To luxury fashion houses, leather goods are the rocket fuel of their huge expansion over the past decade. To high street fashion brands they represent an unrivalled cash cow. The fact that they are made from the skin of a beast is incidental.

A rising global middle class means more crazy-ass consumption of bags — and more cows. Presently around m cows are killed every year from a global herd approaching 1bn. Projections tell us that in order to keep us in wallets, handbags and shoes, the industry needs to slaughter m cows annually by Leather is the material of the moment.

The way to fashion credibility is apparently to pile on animal skins the other current favourite is shearling , so you look like an extra from The Revenant. Despite a defiant surge in fur-wearing, it still remains a mainstream taboo. When it comes to leather, honestly, who really thinks about cows?

Pop star Leona Lewis does. Since she came to fame via The X-Factor she has continually spoken up for animal rights. She now fronts a new Peta campaign video, Hell for Leather , which, unsurprisingly, is a grim watch. Filmmaker Manfred Karremann, a seasoned campaigner, tracks a pathetic caravan of cattle between India and Bangladesh as they are driven along dusty roads for hours and hours, abused and tortured with every mile.

Finally the animals are skinned in front of each other in the back streets of Dhaka. The skins are processed in makeshift tanneries with workers, including children, knee deep in toxic chemicals. Jason Baker established the Indian branch of Peta in He claims this film represents the reality of leather production in much of the region, rather than a horrifying anomaly.

He himself has seen these kind of conditions again and again. We documented workers, including children, performing hazardous tasks such as soaking hides in toxic chemicals and using knives to cut the skins.

Each year some 34m bovines including buffalo are slaughtered, which makes it one of the engines of the global leather trade, attracting millions of dollars. But at the same time in 24 of 29 states cattle slaughter is illegal, as framed by the constitution.

So how can a state such as Rajasthan, which has the only government cow department to look after freely roaming sacred cows, and one of the biggest gaushalas shelters for stray cattle , also be home to hundreds of tanneries? The system is fraught and suffers from a lack of transparency. The religious overtones of beef consumption are frequently played for political gain.

Last September a man in Uttar Pradesh, Mohammad Akhlaq , was lynched for storing and eating beef, killed by a mob who mistook the mutton in his fridge for calf meat. But in reality we buy leather goods without knowing where the hide originates or what conditions the animals were kept in. Skins are bought and traded across the world, from Ethiopia to Brazil, processed into the soft, buttery leather we associate with upscale European-made accessories.

Nearly half of the global leather trade is carried out in developing countries — from Ethiopia to Cambodia and Vietnam — where, despite a backdrop of exploitation of animals and humans and the extraordinary level of pollution caused by unregulated tanneries and processors, the pressure is on to produce more.

We know that raising livestock in increasing numbers is unsustainable, purely from crunching the numbers around greenhouse gas emissions. But in a seminal Greenpeace report, Slaughtering the Amazon , made a direct connection between leather and the environment.

Moreover, associate products, including leather and tallow made in deforested rainforest, were finding their way into the supply chain of major brands.

To produce the bags she spent time with rancheros on giant ranches in the state of Mato Grosso. For 40 years the ranchers were told to settle the land by the government and to chop down as much rainforest as possible. Now they have us telling them to stop. But the thing I learned is that there is huge capacity for change, and that change works.

The weekend I visit, Leather School has never been busier, as people from a wide range of professions decide that their way of taking control of this issue is to get their hands dirty.