Free the Animals Friday: PETA’s Anti-Leather Display Shocks the Shoppers

With the festive shopping season underway, crowds near the Coach store on Regent Street were met with a gruesome sight when a PETA supporter displayed a realistic ‘bleeding’ severed cow’s head whilst holding a sign proclaiming, “Here’s the Rest of Your Leather Bag!”

The provocative action – part of PETA’s push for Coach to drop animal – and planet-killing leather – comes ahead of PETA’s inaugural Free the Animals Friday, a worldwide Black Friday initiative that seeks to call attention to the suffering of billions of animals slaughtered every year for leather and other animal-derived clothing and inspire holiday shoppers to choose compassionate vegan options.

The Leather Industry

For leather bags, jackets, and shoes, cows are confined on cramped factory farms. They’re subjected to extreme crowding and deprivation as well as castration, branding, tail-docking, and dehorning – all without any painkillers.

At abattoirs, their throats are cut and some are even skinned and dismembered while they’re still conscious.

When kind people understand whose skin is ripped off for leather bags, they’re eager to reach for vegan accessories instead.

Leather Is Toxic

Turning animal skin into leather requires up to 170 unique chemicals – including cyanide, aluminium, and chromium. Animal agriculture, which includes the leather industry, is one of the leading contributors to the climate catastrophe, and cow leather has been ranked the most polluting textile in fashion by industry reports.

Cows Need You to Take Action!

Please keep cruelty off your gift lists by choosing stylish leather-free options that let there be peace on Earth for all animals. Check out our guides: