HebElad Cypis Meir
Out of sight, out of mind. The leather industry is one of the cruelest industries in existence. We usually see its products as fashion items and accessories – coats, belts, bags and purses, creating a vast distance between the products and the victims. The demand for large quantities of leather in low prices has brought a boom to this industry in India, far from the eyes of Western customers. Ironically, India forbids the slaughter of cows, meaning that thousands of cows must be transported to remote areas at the edge of the vast country, travelling great distances. This voyage, which is done mostly on foot (or hoof), and ends with the slaughter of the cows, has been given the morbid name "the death march".
Throughout the voyage the cows are tied together by a rope inserted through their snout (from one nostril to the other) and so they are dragged in pain and bleeding. The cows are not fed or given water for days on end and many collapse and are beaten brutally in order to get up and keep walking. Especially stubborn cows are treated by rubbing chilly pepper into their eyes and breaking their tail bones. When they reach the border the cows are brutally loaded onto trucks, crammed in and trampling over each other. On the other side of the border the trucks are violently unloaded – the cows are beaten and pulled down forcibly, sometimes having to jump down from the truck, some barely able to stand on their legs. The slaughter is usually performed right there, in front of the cows waiting their turn.
