Sexy Trio Bare All For Bovines

PETA Beauties Bare Their Skin to Save Cows’ Backsides

For Immediate Release:
29 July 2004

Contact:
Dawn Carr +44 207 357 9229, ext 224

Belfast, Northern Ireland – Wearing little more than a banner reading, “We’d Rather Bare Skin Than Wear Skin”, two women and a man – members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) – will “expose” Belfast shoppers to the truth about how cows suffer in the making of leather coats, trousers and shoes:

Date: Friday, 30 July
Time: 12 noon sharp
Place: Outside Castlecourt Shopping Centre, corner of Royal Avenue and Berry Street

Why does PETA want stylish shoppers to give leather the boot? Buying real leather shoes, jackets, trousers and accessories not only supports the suffering of animals in slaughterhouses, but also devastates the environment and can harm human health.

Millions of cows, pigs, sheep and goats who are slaughtered for their skins are castrated, branded and dehorned and have their tails cut off – all without painkillers. Production-line speed-ups and inadequate stunning measures at abattoirs in Europe and the US mean that cows killed for their skins and flesh are often dismembered while they are still conscious. In India, where leather sold in the United Kingdom often originates, animals are often transported in severely overcrowded conditions and become mangled or die en route. Cattle are routinely taken on death marches to slaughter in India and are driven on by having chilli peppers and tobacco rubbed into their eyes or the bones in their tails broken if they collapse from exhaustion or injury. The skins of dogs killed for meat in Korea, China and the Philippines are often marked “cow hide” before they are exported to the West.

Furthermore, tanneries are notorious water polluters, and tannery workers have rates of cancer many times higher than the average population.

The scantily-clad protesters plan to show sophisticated consumers that real beauty is far more than skin deep. Says PETA’s stripper-for-a-cause, Diane Selvanayagam, “With today’s fake snake, mock croc and synthetic leather skins, it’s easy to have a look that kills without actually killing”.

PETA’s “Bare Skin” tour travelled to Dublin on Thursday. For more information, please visit CowsAreCool.com.

Broadcast-quality footage of animals being killed for their skins will be available on site.

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