Animal Ethics and Morality

Prada and Pretty Shoes

I have a confession to make. A skeleton in my closet. A skeleton that keeps knocking on the door with its bare knuckles, making sure I know it’s there on a daily basis.

About five years ago, while on a shopping trip in New York, I visited the flagship Prada store. You know the one: lots of space, not so many clothes or shoes, as seen on Sex and The City. Passing through this minimalist space, I saw a vision—a beautiful pair of stiletto shoes, ruby red at the heel and faded to salmon pink at the toe. As shoes go, perfection.

I should clarify now that I am not a shoe person in the least. For the most part, shoes are to me merely the things that separate me from the wet sidewalk or make me just tall enough to keep my trousers from dragging on the floor.

But these shoes were different. These were shoes Cinderella wouldn’t dare leave on the staircase, and I wasn’t about to wait for Prince Charming to bring them to me. So I handed over my dollars and took possession of this beautiful pair of leather shoes.

Now, five years later, I think I have worn those shoes about four times in all, and not once in the last four years. They sit in my wardrobe looking at me as if I’m a nut for not taking advantage of their beauty and perfection. Maybe you’d agree.

How It Got this Way

So I guess I’ll explain. When I bought the shoes, I was certainly aware of what leather was. I knew leather was dead animal skin. Had these shoes actually looked like skin, I probably would have been revolted and left the store shoeless.

But they didn’t. Dyed and shaped beyond recognition, leather shoes, purses, belts, and sofas generally don’t look too much like the animal they came from. It’s no surprise that we are not revolted by leather in the same way any decent person would be by, say, a fur coat, a vanity so obviously torn from an animal’s body that it easily provokes all kinds of emotional reactions from those confronted with it. Leather shoes just look like, well, shoes.

The Origins of Leather

Leather is an animal product that slips past our ethical alarm sensors and quietly settles into our closets unrecognized for what it is. At the time I bought my pair of Pradas, I was a vegetarian (I have since become vegan). “Hypocrite!”, I hear you shout, and I have to say I agree.

Another reason leather has so successfully gotten accepted into everyday life is the justification that every vegetarian will recognize and many have used, myself included: “Leather is just a by-product of the meat industry.” I remember hearing one of my vegetarian friends use this when I was a young veggie myself. I remember it didn’t sound quite right then, a cop out, an excuse. It lingered in my head, but I never felt convinced even when I spoke the words myself, although I continued to wear leather for many more years.

The real truth is that the leather industry is a multi-million dollar business in its own right, and it wouldn’t be stopped by a slowdown in the meat industry any more than the fur industry has been hindered by the fact that its victims don’t taste too good. Ever eaten Mink, Ermine, or Fox? Thought not.

A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way Here

You know that joke, “What’s black and white and red all over?” Well, there’s one answer that has nothing to do with nuns or penguins. I know from first hand experience.

About one year post-Prada purchase, I was driving past the local abattoir (that’s a slaughterhouse to you and me). Normally I, like most people, try to look the other way and hope I don’t see the sad faces peering through the bars as they are led to their grim fate.

But this time I failed to turn away in time and was transfixed by a huge van, the contents of which were available for all to see. There in front of me was layer after layer after layer of dead cow skin, freshly torn from the bodies of the animals, so fresh in fact that blood was still running down the empty limp black and white skins. At that exact moment, leather became a very different thing to me. It stopped being “leather”—which is really just a sort of euphemism—and became what it really is: the skin of a dead, but once living, breathing creature. Before being treated with all manner of toxic chemicals to stop it from rotting and to remove the hair and before being dyed all colors of the rainbow, leather is skin.

No More Pretty Shoes?

So have I been shoeless for four years? Do I walk round with all my worldly goods in my pockets–no purse, no wallet? At the end of the day do I rest my weary butt on the stone floor rather than a sofa or chair? Nope, I have found better and more creative alternatives from many companies.

If I want to spend silly money on shoes, I can go to Stella McCartney, who doesn’t use any dead animals in her fashion line, or many other online companies, including Alternative Outfitters (USA), Bourgeois Boheme (UK) and Beyond Skin (UK) to name but a few. Even the designers that use leather may have shoes that are not made from living beings; Christian Louboutin & Prada have both made cruelty-free shoes (request they make more).

Best of all, the cheapest High Street store shoes are often non-leather. So if you don’t want to splurge, you can save and still look great and be ahead of the fashion curve. Whatever your flavor of choice, you do not have to accept cruelty in fashion. You can walk tall knowing you are not only dazzling, dahling, but have also made an ethical choice for animals and the environment.

And, as for the punch line to that famous joke, well, now you know, it isn’t that funny after all.

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RESOURCES:

http://www.stellamccartney.com/
http://www.alternativeoutfitters.com/
http://www.beyondskin.co.uk/html/home.php
http://www.bboheme.com/

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Sally-Anne Ryan is a British artist and writer who uses her work to highlight the plight of animals all over the world. She happily shares her home with three failed show dogs, two rescued dogs, and ten former battery chickens.