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Disappointing its loyal customers, fashion brand TELFAR—known for its Bushwick Birkin bag and many other stylish bags made of vegan leather—has launched a bag made of the skin of dead animals.
The leather industry subjects sensitive beings to horrific cruelty. The animals are forced to endure all the horrors of factory farming—including castration, branding, dehorning, and tail docking, often without any painkillers. After a lifetime of intensive confinement, they’re typically transported to slaughterhouses, where their throats are slit and some are even skinned and dismembered while they’re still conscious, often in full view of other terrified animals.
This destructive industry is harmful to the environment as well. Leather production requires carcinogenic chemicals, causing massive damage to the planet. According to the Higg Materials Sustainability Index, cowskin leather contributes more to global warming, water pollution, water depletion, and greenhouse gas emissions than any synthetic or plant-based vegan leather. Animal-friendly materials—including vegan leathers made from apples, mushrooms, mangoes, tree bark, and many other natural sources—are widely available.
Cows are intelligent animals who can remember things for a long time. Animal behaviorists have found that they interact in socially complex ways, developing friendships over time and sometimes holding grudges against other cows who treat them badly. These gentle giants mourn the deaths of and even separation from those they love, sometimes shedding tears over their loss. But cows and other animals are cruelly slaughtered so that the leather industry can profit from their skins.
Please urge TELFAR to return to exclusively using vegan leather for its bags.