By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Jul 14 2000 (IPS)

A highly successful international campaign against cruelty to cows in India has worried the leather industry, one of the country’s main employers and foreign exchange earners.

With leading global brands boycotting Indian leather and leather products for cruel treatment of cattle, industry exporters in the country are complaining that this is threatening the livelihoods of two million workers, nearly a third of them women.

However, the campaign by the Britain-based, People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), that drew in Western celebrities, has also forced the Indian leather industry to admit violations of local laws against cruelty to animals.

On assurances from the industry, PETA had suspended the campaign till mid-July. But with evidence of little improvement in the situation, a second phase of the boycott campaign may be started later this month, said Jason Baker, who heads PETA’s Indian chapter.

Every year, India exports 1.6 billion U.S. dollars worth of shoes, gloves, leather garments and saddlery to several Western countries.

However, in Hindu-majority India where cows are treated as sacred, their slaughter is a sensitive political issue and banned in most states, except communist-ruled southern Kerala and West Bengal in the east.

The result is that cattle from all over India are herded or transported by road and rail to these two states for slaughter. For years, animal rights and pro-Hindu groups had opposed the cruel treatment of cattle during their transport across India which they said was also illegal.

Maneka Gandhi, a leading animal rights campaigner and a member of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government, has even accused the government machinery of participating in the cruelty rather than trying to stop it.

“The Cattle Act clearly says no cattle can be ferried from one state to another for the purpose of slaughter. The police, however, looks the other way and the railways transport them claiming the animals are being ferried for milching,” she said.

The PETA campaign filmed the agony of cattle goring each other in jam-packed railway wagons and breaking legs and pelvises as they were carelessly shoved on and off trucks.

The film was shown around the world and backed by former Western entertainment industry stars like Paul McCartney, Brigitte Bardot and Steven Seagal, besides the Dalai Lama.

When PETA began its campaign in January it ran into a wall of official apathy. “We got attention only after the big names in the global leather apparel business began to boycott leather products from India,” said Baker.

By May, PETA had persuaded Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Hush Puppies, Nordstrom and several other big houses to announce boycotts of India leather.

This forced the Indian Council for Leather Exports, a government body, to approach PETA. “We suspended the campaign till the third week of July on assurances by Council chairman Mohamed Hashim that the industry would do what it could to stop cattle from being treated cruelly,” Baker said.

“All we are trying to do is get simple enforcement of existing laws against cruelty to animals – these laws are broken at so many different levels but especially when they are transported long distances across state borders,” he added.

However, leather export council chief Hashim said there was little that the body could do to stop the ill-treatment of cows beyond telling exporters not to buy skins that originate from illegal cattle movement and slaughter.

However, exporters allege that the PETA campaign is one-sided. “The fact is that Indian cattle are never bred for their skins and therefore do not produce the kind of leather that is required for producing fine shoes and garments that go into the export trade,” said Raman Baluja, a leading leather exporter.

According to Baluja, exporters usually import all their raw materials because of stringent Western restrictions on hide quality and on the chemical dyes used by local tanners.

He said that cattle bred for leather in the West were subjected to far more cruelty because they were kept confined in narrow spaces for fear that they would damage their skins.

“In India cattle are never kept confined and allowed to roam about at will – even in the cities as anyone can see,” he said.

According to Baluja, in India, cattle were traditionally not slaughtered but allowed to fall dead when their skins were removed and sold to tanneries – a practice which is still followed in most parts of the country.

He was backed by D. Raghunandan, director of the Centre for Technology and Development, a leading non-governmental organisation (NGO) that promotes artisanal tanning of hides removed from fallen cattle.

According to Raghunandan, PETA’s campaign was not based on facts and was damaging the reputation of the Indian leather industry as well as causing it huge financial losses.

However, neither Raghunandan nor Baluja denied that cattle in transit were sometimes subjected to cruelty.

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