Mindful mobsters like Frankie and Joey have a beef with the leather industry. That’s because workers whack millions of cows for their skin every year. Cows are family—they stick together and look out for their own like a proper crew under a good capo. You mess with one, you mess with the whole outfit. You got the bold ones, the shy ones, the bossy ones, and the mischievous ones—just like in any family. And let’s just say they hold a grudge if you cross ’em.
But the guys in the leather racket treat these goodfellas like nothing and cut off their horns and part of their tails, and cut out their testicles, often without a lick of pain relief. After a lifetime of being unable to do anything that’s natural and important to them, they get a one-way ride to the slaughterhouse, where workers slit their throats and even skin and dismember them—sometimes while they can still feel pain.
And don’t even get our friend Frankie started on big leather’s hit on the planet. Raising cows for belts and jackets wipes out vast amounts of land, clearing trees and killing wildlife. We’ve got up to 80% of the Amazon rainforest going down for the leather and meat rackets. And animal agriculture? It’s a leading climate killer that guzzles over a third of the world’s freshwater and 70% of agricultural land if you combine global grazing land with the amount of cropland used to feed animals. Just think of the mess we’d dodge if more mugs made a fit with vegan leather!
