[www.healthiq.com]

How Many Cows Did It Take?
By Alexandra Marshall April 25, 2016

Do you know how many cows it takes to create a single football, the interior of a Bentley Mulsanne, or even your favorite pair of leather shoes? While it’s easy for many vegans to avoid meat consumption in their diet, there are other more ubiquitous ways cows are “used.” Have you ever tossed around a non-leather football, for example? When you add up all the products produced from cow hides each year, the total magnitude of lives loss is staggering…so we visualized it.

Here is Health I.Q.‘s look into how many cows are slaughtered each year to make 3 of the most common leather products.

Vegan Infographic: How Many Cows Were Used?
(1) 20 footballs take one cow hide on an average. In 2015, there were 700,000 regulation game day NFL balls made from natural cow hides, which equates to 35,000 hides.

(2) In 2015, over 7.7 million new cars were purchased in the United States, with 2 million of them being luxury models. Assuming leather graced 75% of the luxury cars, 1.5 million leather car interiors were produced. Taking PETA’s calculation—that it takes on average eight cow hides to create a leather car interior— we calculated that around 12 million cows were slaughtered in 2015 solely for the purpose of luxurious rides in America.

(3) 18 leather shoes take one cow hide on an average. In 2015, 2.2 billion shoes were sold in the United States. Assuming 25% of them were made from leather, 550 million leather shoes were produced, which equates to 30 million hides.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2018 01:13AM by Tai.

[heiferinyourtank.typepad.com]

According to the Alberta Boot Company, (Alberta’s only manufacturer of cowboy boots), this process involves over 200 steps performed by skilled employees. If Alberta Boot can manufacture 10 000 pairs of boots yearly and 40 pairs per day, then how many boots can they make from one cowhide?

We know that the surface area of cowhides varies depending on the breed, size and age of a cow. The rough surface area of a hide is 3.8m². By calculating the surface area of each piece of leather used in the boot, the total amount of leather used can be found, which is, on average, 0.3m². Thus, 11 cowboy boots per cow can be made. That’s enough to outfit five cowboys as well as another cowboy who enjoys wearing only one boot.

It takes an estimated 39,090 gallons of water to make a car. ... pretty vast amount of water.

The Royal Engish Guards with those Black bear Hats, Its a military secret on how many Canadian Black Bears are killed every year to make hats for the Mad hatters.

Good to email English govt and tell them time to take the hat off!

Its also good every now and then to look at our envirmental foot print, life form between our toes.

How much leather needed to make a jacket?

Here a maker says he would use 3 goat hide and a lady said she would use 6 sheep hides. 6 sheep die for one jacket? The suffering is staggering.

Serge Volken, leather artisan and shoe historian
Answered Jan 20, 2017
IY depends what leather is used and the size of animal. A jacket made of goat skins will use up 3 hides, one for the back, one for the front and one for the sleeves. The main pieces to make the jacket are quite big so there is a larger amount of cutting scraps big enough to cut out smaller pieces such as cuffs , collars , pocket reinforcements or even leather buttons.

A full cow hide may have enough leather to make two jackets if the pattern cutting is carefully planned. This takes some experience and know how because quality and strength is depending on the part of the hide too. Strong on both sides along the back, a bit fluffy on the belly, good and flexible on the neck.

Mary Whitaker, Have worked as leather and suede clothing designer for nearly 35 years
Answered Jan 28, 2017
Leather is sold by the individual skins which vary in size according to the animal. Cows being the largest and goats probably the smallest. The hides are measured by a clever machine and marked up on the wrong sides with their sq footage. I make a lot of bespoke jackets and urge caution on estimating amounts. It's often hard to buy more if you run out as dye lots vary enormously. If you are able I would recommend taking your pattern pieces to the hide merchant and laying out the pieces then buying maybe 2 extra hides to allow for blemishes or mistake. But as a rule of thumb if you were using sheep hides. I would probably want a hide for each front panel one for the back one for each sleeve and one for the facings. So that's 6 altogether. Collars and pockets etc can be cut from the wastage around the larger panels. There are so many variables when buying and cutting leather it would take a book to explain it all. Remember that these are animals and like humans they have scars and blemishes so you have to be extremely sharp eyed when placing your patterns. Also the hides will often have a nap like velvet if it's suede so you must be careful to cut all panels in the same direction. I felt so sick cutting my first leather jacket out. Then I cut out 2 left sleeves! The only way to rectify it was to make both sleeves shorter. I felt so stupid. I then told myself that it was only ‘money’ and no one had been harmed by my mistake. Lucky I am not a surgeon. Anyway I nevermade the same mistake and always buy at least one skin too many. These usually get made into bags or belts if not used on the garmen. Good luck

1.3k Views · View Upvoters



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2018 04:51AM by Tai.

For one leather couch and leather love seat, 16 hides are needed. 16 cows for 2 couches? It would take 12, but 16 is the safe # to avoid flaws.

[upholsteryfitouts.blogspot.com]

When you are getting a lounge suite covered in leather, you need to figure out how many hides you will need. Leather comes per hide, not on a roll from your local fabric store. That means it takes a little brain power to determine the number of hides you need to buy. In general, it's assumed that each hide will give you approximately 4.75 square metres of leather, but how does that translate to how many I need for my lounge suite?

Here are some basics so you can get a better idea of what you might need, but check with your upholsterer to confirm you will have enough for your project before buying. It is likely however, that your upholsterer has their own source on getting hides. So check that the deal you're getting is in fact better than what your upholsterer would be able to get within the trade.


To work out how many hides you will need to buy we need to do a little maths (sorry!) First you need to know these two factors:

A cow hide = approx 4.75 square metres of leather
You need to order 1.75 square metres of leather for every square metre of fabric

Now we know the area required, lets get some more information.

Lets pretend you are getting a couch and a love seat upholstered, we need to know how many metres of fabric is needed to cover them:

Couch = Approx 16.45 metres of fabric needed (width approx 150cm)
Loveseat = Approx 14.75 metres of fabric needed (width approx 150cm)


So total of fabric needed is 31.25 metres of fabric is needed to upholster both pieces.

Now we need to determine the area of leather required to cover the couch and the love seat:

31.25 metres (of fabric) x 1.75 sq. m (of leather) = 54.75 square metres of leather
(Lets call is 55 sq. metres)

Now lets find out the number of hides:

Again, each hide is about 4.75 sq. metres of leather, so the final formula you need is this:

55 sq. metres of leather (needed) / 4.75 (per hide) = approx 12 hides are required

Additionally you would want to add 10-20% extra to accommodate any flaws or unusable sections of the hide.

That brings you closer to 14.5 hides so in other words you will need to round up to 15 hides, if you really want to be safe, aim for 16 hides.

[www.bbncommunity.com]

Shocking Story: Cow crying and begging for his life…


The idea that animals have feelings, rather confirmed by the following story …

The employees of an abattoir in Hong Kong remained with his mouth open when trying to lead a bull at the slaughterhouse, they saw him kneel and beg for his life!

The Shiu, one of the workers said that when they approached the animal and tried to pull the door is folded his front feet on the ground began to tremble and his eyes filled with tears.

Then decided to yell and other workers for help but none of them managed to pick up the frightened animal and lead to the slaughterhouse.

After a short deliberation, the workers decided to finally earn him his life.

The idea was to put each one of them amount to buy the animal and to donate to monks.

According to the workers, the bull stood up and stopped crying only when he realized that the workers had decided to donate his life.

These Videos May Prove Animals Know When They’re Next in Line to Die

[www.peta.org]

Written by Angela Henderson | April 14, 2016
Every time we see an animal on the news who’s escaped from a slaughterhouse and gone running through busy streets, dodging cars and fate, we root for the animal.

We root for the animal to live, because we know what the alternative is. But do the animals know?

If slaughterhouses aren’t terrifying places, why would animals risk their lives to escape? Why would they panic when approaching the kill floor?

These videos demonstrate that animals know when they’re in line to die and show how they do everything they can to save themselves.

Cows cry nonstop if their babies are taken from them. That's why when the babies are born, they are taken from the cows before the cows can set eyes on them.

This video shows the love of a cow for her baby

[www.youtube.com]

Rescued Cow Crying for Missing Baby REUNITED | The Dodo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2018 07:24AM by Tai.

This is a pet Bison Bull. He is so loving and respectful.

He doesn't knock anything over. He is naturally gentle inside the house.

He is a beautiful animal.

[www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2018 07:41AM by Tai.

Question:
Do cows cry on their way to the slaughterhouse?
[www.quora.com]

Answer by a Butcher:

Bryan Jones, studied at Butchering
Answered Oct 18

I've seen tears leak from a cows eyes, and I've seen them become irrationally irate when they smelled the blood on me or my trailer.

I don't think they connect the events.

Cattle can be quite personable. I've had them come up to me to have their heads scratched while I'm covered in their pasture mates blood, had them lick the rifle while I'm trying to get a good shot, and had them break through multiple fences running from me just showing up.

Crying is a complex emotion and not something I think they are capable of.

Tai's comment:
He has seen the cow's tears but refuses to admit that the cow was crying. Sick.

[www.cowism.com]

Cows Don’t Want to Die

Like all animals, cows value their lives and don’t want to die. Stories abound of cows who have gone to extraordinary lengths to fight for their lives.

A cow named Suzie was about to be loaded on a freighter bound for Venezuela when she turned around, ran back down the gangplank, and leaped into the river. Even though she was pregnant, she managed to swim all the way across the river, eluding capture for several days. She was rescued by PETA and sent to a sanctuary for farmed animals.

When workers at a slaughterhouse in Massachusetts went on break, Emily the cow made a break of her own. She took a tremendous leap over a five-foot gate and escaped into the woods, surviving for several weeks in New England’s snowiest winter in a decade, cleverly refusing to touch the hay put out to lure her back to the slaughterhouse. When she was eventually caught by the owners of a nearby sanctuary, public outcry demanded that the slaughterhouse allow the sanctuary to buy her for one dollar. Today, Emily is living happily in Massachusetts, a testimony to the fact that eating meat means eating animals who don’t want to die. (Emily’s full story will be related in next chapter.)

Much like humans, cows vary widely in intelligence and personality. Some seem bold and adventurous while others are shy and reserved. Some cows are very clever but some learn slowly. They can be friendly or aggressive, and sometimes even appear to be proud.

[www.washingtonpost.com]

'They Die Piece by Piece'
By Jo Warrick April 10, 2001
Second of two articles

It takes 25 minutes to turn a live steer into steak at the modern slaughterhouse where Ramon Moreno works. For 20 years, his post was "second-legger," a job that entails cutting hocks off carcasses as they whirl past at a rate of 309 an hour.

The cattle were supposed to be dead before they got to Moreno. But too often they weren't.

"They blink. They make noises," he said softly. "The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around."

Still Moreno would cut. On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. "They die," said Moreno, "piece by piece."

Under a 23-year-old federal law, slaughtered cattle and hogs first must be "stunned" -- rendered insensible to pain -- with a blow to the head or an electric shock. But at overtaxed plants, the law is sometimes broken, with cruel consequences for animals as well as workers. Enforcement records, interviews, videos and worker affidavits describe repeated violations of the Humane Slaughter Act at dozens of slaughterhouses, ranging from the smallest, custom butcheries to modern, automated establishments such as the sprawling IBP Inc. plant here where Moreno works.

"In plants all over the United States, this happens on a daily basis," said Lester Friedlander, a veterinarian and formerly chief government inspector at a Pennsylvania hamburger plant. "I've seen it happen. And I've talked to other veterinarians. They feel it's out of control."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees the treatment of animals in meat plants, but enforcement of the law varies dramatically. While a few plants have been forced to halt production for a few hours because of alleged animal cruelty, such sanctions are rare.

For example, the government took no action against a Texas beef company that was cited 22 times in 1998 for violations that included chopping hooves off live cattle. In another case, agency supervisors failed to take action on multiple complaints of animal cruelty at a Florida beef plant and fired an animal health technician for reporting the problems to the Humane Society. The dismissal letter sent to the technician, Tim Walker, said his dislosure had "irreparably damaged" the agency's relations with the packing plant.

"I complained to everyone -- I said, 'Lookit, they're skinning live cows in there,' " Walker said. "Always it was the same answer: 'We know it's true. But there's nothing we can do about it.' "

In the past three years, a new meat inspection system that shifted responsibility to industry has made it harder to catch and report cruelty problems, some federal inspectors say. Under the new system, implemented in 1998, the agency no longer tracks the number of humane-slaughter violations its inspectors find each year.

Some inspectors are so frustrated they're asking outsiders for help: The inspectors' union last spring urged Washington state authorities to crack down on alleged animal abuse at the IBP plant in Pasco. In a statement, IBP said problems described by workers in its Washington state plant "do not accurately represent the way we operate our plants. We take the issue of proper livestock handling very seriously."

But the union complained that new government policies and faster production speeds at the plant had "significantly hampered our ability to ensure compliance." Several animal welfare groups joined in the petition.

"Privatization of meat inspection has meant a quiet death to the already meager enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act," said Gail Eisnitz of the Humane Farming Association, a group that advocates better treatment of farm animals. "USDA isn't simply relinquishing its humane-slaughter oversight to the meat industry, but is -- without the knowledge and consent of Congress -- abandoning this function altogether."

The USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service, which is responsible for meat inspection, says it has not relaxed its oversight. In January, the agency ordered a review of 100 slaughterhouses. An FSIS memo reminded its 7,600 inspectors they had an "obligation to ensure compliance" with humane-handling laws.

The review comes as pressure grows on both industry and regulators to improve conditions for the 155 million cattle, hogs, horses and sheep slaughtered each year. McDonald's and Burger King have been subject to boycotts by animal rights groups protesting mistreatment of livestock.

As a result, two years ago McDonald's began requiring suppliers to abide by the American Meat Institute's Good Management Practices for Animal Handling and Stunning. The company also began conducting annual audits of meat plants. Last week, Burger King announced it would require suppliers to follow the meat institute's standards.

"Burger King Corp. takes the issues of food safety and animal welfare very seriously, and we expect our suppliers to comply," the company said in a statement.

Industry groups acknowledge that sloppy killing has tangible consequences for consumers as well as company profits. Fear and pain cause animals to produce hormones that damage meat and cost companies tens of millions of dollars a year in discarded product, according to industry estimates.

Industry officials say they also recognize an ethical imperative to treat animals with compassion. Science is blurring the distinction between the mental processes of humans and lower animals -- discovering, for example, that even the lowly rat may dream. Americans thus are becoming more sensitive to the suffering of food animals, even as they consume increasing numbers of them.

"Handling animals humanely," said American Meat Institute President J. Patrick Boyle, "is just the right thing to do."

Clearly, not all plants have gotten the message.

A Post computer analysis of government enforcement records found 527 violations of humane-handling regulations from 1996 to 1997, the last years for which complete records were available. The offenses range from overcrowded stockyards to incidents in which live animals were cut, skinned or scalded.

Through the Freedom of Information Act, The Post obtained enforcement documents from 28 plants that had high numbers of offenses or had drawn penalties for violating humane-handling laws. The Post also interviewed dozens of current and former federal meat inspectors and slaughterhouse workers. A reporter reviewed affidavits and secret video recordings made inside two plants.

Among the findings:

* One Texas plant, Supreme Beef Packers in Ladonia, had 22 violations in six months. During one inspection, federal officials found nine live cattle dangling from an overhead chain. But managers at the plant, which announced last fall it was ceasing operations, resisted USDA warnings, saying its practices were no different than others in the industry. "Other plants are not subject to such extensive scrutiny of their stunning activities," the plant complained in a 1997 letter to the USDA.

* Government inspectors halted production for a day at the Calhoun Packing Co. beef plant in Palestine, Tex., after inspectors saw cattle being improperly stunned. "They were still conscious and had good reflexes," B.V. Swamy, a veterinarian and senior USDA official at the plant, wrote. The shift supervisor "allowed the cattle to be hung anyway." IBP, which owned the plant at the time, contested the findings but "took steps to resolve the situation," including installing video equipment and increasing training, a spokesman said. IBP has since sold the plant.

* At the Farmers Livestock Cooperative processing plant in Hawaii, inspectors documented 14 humane-slaughter violations in as many months. Records from 1997 and 1998 describe hogs that were walking and squealing after being stunned as many as four times. In a memo to USDA, the company said it fired the stunner and increased monitoring of the slaughter process.

* At an Excel Corp. beef plant in Fort Morgan, Colo., production was halted for a day in 1998 after workers allegedly cut off the leg of a live cow whose limbs had become wedged in a piece of machinery. In imposing the sanction, U.S. inspectors cited a string of violations in the previous two years, including the cutting and skinning of live cattle. The company, responding to one such charge, contended that it was normal for animals to blink and arch their backs after being stunned, and such "muscular reaction" can occur up to six hours after death. "None of these reactions indicate the animal is still alive," the company wrote to USDA.

* Hogs, unlike cattle, are dunked in tanks of hot water after they are stunned to soften the hides for skinning. As a result, a botched slaughter condemns some hogs to being scalded and drowned. Secret videotape from an Iowa pork plant shows hogs squealing and kicking as they are being lowered into the water.

USDA documents and interviews with inspectors and plant workers attributed many of the problems to poor training, faulty or poorly maintained equipment or excessive production speeds. Those problems were identified five years ago in an industry-wide audit by Temple Grandin, an assistant professor with Colorado State University's animal sciences department and one of the nation's leading experts on slaughter practices.

In the early 1990s, Grandin developed the first objective standards for treatment of animals in slaughterhouses, which were adopted by the American Meat Institute, the industry's largest trade group. Her initial, USDA-funded survey in 1996 was one of the first attempts to grade slaughter plants.

One finding was a high failure rate among beef plants that use stunning devices known as "captive-bolt" guns. Of the plants surveyed, only 36 percent earned a rating of "acceptable" or better, meaning cattle were knocked unconscious with a single blow at least 95 percent of the time.

Grandin now conducts annual surveys as a consultant for the American Meat Institute and McDonald's Corp. She maintains that the past four years have brought dramatic improvements -- mostly because of pressure from McDonald's, which sends a team of meat industry auditors into dozens of plants each year to observe slaughter practices.

Based on the data collected by McDonald's auditors, the portion of beef plants scoring "acceptable" or better climbed to 90 percent in 1999. Some workers and inspectors are skeptical of the McDonald's numbers, and Grandin said the industry's performance dropped slightly last year after auditors stopped giving notice of some inspections.

Grandin said high production speeds can trigger problems when people and equipment are pushed beyond their capacity. From a typical kill rate of 50 cattle an hour in the early 1900s, production speeds rose dramatically in the 1980s. They now approach 400 per hour in the newest plants.

"It's like the 'I Love Lucy' episode in the chocolate factory," she said. "You can speed up a job and speed up a job, and after a while you get to a point where performance doesn't simply decline -- it crashes."

When that happens, it's not only animals that suffer. Industry trade groups acknowledge that improperly stunned animals contribute to worker injuries in an industry that already has the nation's highest rate of job-related injuries and illnesses -- about 27 percent a year. At some plants, "dead" animals have inflicted so many broken limbs and teeth that workers wear chest pads and hockey masks.

"The live cows cause a lot of injuries," said Martin Fuentes, an IBP worker whose arm was kicked and shattered by a dying cow. "The line is never stopped simply because an animal is alive."

A 'Brutal' Harvest

At IBP's Pasco complex, the making of the American hamburger starts in a noisy, blood-spattered chamber shielded from view by a stainless steel wall. Here, live cattle emerge from a narrow chute to be dispatched in a process known as "knocking" or "stunning." On most days the chamber is manned by a pair of Mexican immigrants who speak little English and earn about $9 an hour for killing up to 2,050 head per shift.

The tool of choice is the captive-bolt gun, which fires a retractable metal rod into the steer's forehead. An effective stunning requires a precision shot, which workers must deliver hundreds of times daily to balky, frightened animals that frequently weigh 1,000 pounds or more. Within 12 seconds of entering the chamber, the fallen steer is shackled to a moving chain to be bled and butchered by other workers in a fast-moving production line.

The hitch, IBP workers say, is that some "stunned" cattle wake up.

"If you put a knife into the cow, it's going to make a noise: It says, 'Moo!' " said Moreno, the former second-legger, who began working in the stockyard last year. "They move the head and the eyes and the leg like the cow wants to walk."

After a blow to the head, an unconscious animal may kick or twitch by reflex. But a videotape, made secretly by IBP workers and reviewed by veterinarians for The Post, depicts cattle that clearly are alive and conscious after being stunned.

Some cattle, dangling by a leg from the plant's overhead chain, twist and arch their backs as though trying to right themselves. Close-ups show blinking reflexes, an unmistakable sign of a conscious brain, according to guidelines approved by the American Meat Institute.

The video, parts of which were aired by Seattle television station KING last spring, shows injured cattle being trampled. In one graphic scene, workers give a steer electric shocks by jamming a battery-powered prod into its mouth.

More than 20 workers signed affidavits alleging that the violations shown on tape are commonplace and that supervisors are aware of them. The sworn statements and videos were prepared with help from the Humane Farming Association. Some workers had taken part in a 1999 strike over what they said were excessive plant production speeds.

"I've seen thousands and thousands of cows go through the slaughter process alive," IBP veteran Fuentes, the worker who was injured while working on live cattle, said in an affidavit. "The cows can get seven minutes down the line and still be alive. I've been in the side-puller where they're still alive. All the hide is stripped out down the neck there."

IBP, the nation's top beef processor, denounced as an "appalling aberration" the problems captured on the tape. It suggested the events may have been staged by "activists trying to raise money and promote their agenda. . . .

"Like many other people, we were very upset over the hidden camera video," the company said. "We do not in any way condone some of the livestock handling that was shown."

After the video surfaced, IBP increased worker training and installed cameras in the slaughter area. The company also questioned workers and offered a reward for information leading to identification of those responsible for the video. One worker said IBP pressured him to sign a statement denying that he had seen live cattle on the line.

"I knew that what I wrote wasn't true," said the worker, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing his job. "Cows still go alive every day. When cows go alive, it's because they don't give me time to kill them."

Independent assessments of the workers' claims have been inconclusive. Washington state officials launched a probe in May that included an unannounced plant inspection. The investigators say they were detained outside the facility for an hour while their identities were checked. They saw no acts of animal cruelty once permitted inside.

Grandin, the Colorado State professor, also inspected IBP's plant, at the company's request; that inspection was announced. Although she observed no live cattle being butchered, she concluded that the plant's older-style equipment was "overloaded." Grandin reviewed parts of the workers' videotape and said there was no mistaking what she saw.

"There were fully alive beef on that rail," Grandin said.

Inconsistent Enforcement

Preventing this kind of suffering is officially a top priority for the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service. By law, a humane-slaughter violation is among a handful of offenses that can result in an immediate halt in production -- and cost a meatpacker hundreds or even thousands of dollars per idle minute.

In reality, many inspectors describe humane slaughter as a blind spot: Inspectors' regular duties rarely take them to the chambers where stunning occurs. Inconsistencies in enforcement, training and record-keeping hamper the agency's ability to identify problems.

The meat inspectors' union, in its petition last spring to Washington state's attorney general, contended that federal agents are "often prevented from carrying out" the mandate against animal cruelty. Among the obstacles inspectors face are "dramatic increases in production speeds, lack of support from supervisors in plants and district offices . . . new inspection policies which significantly reduce our enforcement authority, and little to no access to the areas of the plants where animals are killed," stated the petition by the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals.

Barbara Masters, the agency's director of slaughter operations, told meat industry executives in February she didn't know if the number of violations was up or down, though she believed most plants were complying with the law. "We encourage the district offices to monitor trends," she said. "The fact that we haven't heard anything suggests there are no trends."

But some inspectors see little evidence the agency is interested in hearing about problems. Under the new inspection system, the USDA stopped tracking the number of violations and dropped all mentions of humane slaughter from its list of rotating tasks for inspectors.

The agency says it expects its watchdogs to enforce the law anyway. Many inspectors still do, though some occasionally wonder if it's worth the trouble.

"It always ends up in argument: Instead of re-stunning the animal, you spend 20 minutes just talking about it," said Colorado meat inspector Gary Dahl, sharing his private views. "Yes, the animal will be dead in a few minutes anyway. But why not let him die with dignity?"

In the Blink of an Eye: A secret video made by a worker at a meatpacking plant in Pasco, Wash., showed that this steer, which supposedly had been stunned, had blinking reflexes, indicating it was still conscious.Still Alive: Ramon Moreno, right, says cattle frequently are not killed properly at the plant where he works.Overstressed: Temple Grandin of Colorado State University said when workers at plants are pushed too much, "performance doesn't simply decline -- it crashes."

Quote
Tai
How much leather needed to make a jacket?

Here a maker says he would use 3 goat hide and a lady said she would use 6 sheep hides. 6 sheep die for one jacket? The suffering is staggering.

Serge Volken, leather artisan and shoe historian
Answered Jan 20, 2017
IY depends what leather is used and the size of animal. A jacket made of goat skins will use up 3 hides, one for the back, one for the front and one for the sleeves. The main pieces to make the jacket are quite big so there is a larger amount of cutting scraps big enough to cut out smaller pieces such as cuffs , collars , pocket reinforcements or even leather buttons.

A full cow hide may have enough leather to make two jackets if the pattern cutting is carefully planned. This takes some experience and know how because quality and strength is depending on the part of the hide too. Strong on both sides along the back, a bit fluffy on the belly, good and flexible on the neck.

Mary Whitaker, Have worked as leather and suede clothing designer for nearly 35 years
Answered Jan 28, 2017
Leather is sold by the individual skins which vary in size according to the animal. Cows being the largest and goats probably the smallest. The hides are measured by a clever machine and marked up on the wrong sides with their sq footage. I make a lot of bespoke jackets and urge caution on estimating amounts. It's often hard to buy more if you run out as dye lots vary enormously. If you are able I would recommend taking your pattern pieces to the hide merchant and laying out the pieces then buying maybe 2 extra hides to allow for blemishes or mistake. But as a rule of thumb if you were using sheep hides. I would probably want a hide for each front panel one for the back one for each sleeve and one for the facings. So that's 6 altogether. Collars and pockets etc can be cut from the wastage around the larger panels. There are so many variables when buying and cutting leather it would take a book to explain it all. Remember that these are animals and like humans they have scars and blemishes so you have to be extremely sharp eyed when placing your patterns. Also the hides will often have a nap like velvet if it's suede so you must be careful to cut all panels in the same direction. I felt so sick cutting my first leather jacket out. Then I cut out 2 left sleeves! The only way to rectify it was to make both sleeves shorter. I felt so stupid. I then told myself that it was only ‘money’ and no one had been harmed by my mistake. Lucky I am not a surgeon. Anyway I nevermade the same mistake and always buy at least one skin too many. These usually get made into bags or belts if not used on the garmen. Good luck

1.3k Views · View Upvoters

Shocking that so much leather is used for couches and jackets. It is completely unavoidable by using some type of natural breathing material instead. As for using all that leather so people can play sport for fun...well...maybe it's time to think about doing something else for fun.

This is very eye opening stuff Tai. Thanks for taking the time to post the reports.

www.thesproutarian.com

Environment Green living blog
What's the carbon footprint of ... a new car?
Making a new car creates as much carbon pollution as driving it, so it's often better to keep your old banger on the road than to upgrade to a greener model.

• More carbon footprints:
• Understand more about carbon footprints
Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clark
Thu 23 Sep 2010 07.30 BST
First published on Thu 23 Sep 20

The carbon footprint of a new car:
6 tonnes CO2e: Citroen C1, basic spec
17 tonnes CO2e: Ford Mondeo, medium spec
35 tonnes CO2e: Land Rover Discovery, top of the range
The carbon footprint of making a car is immensely complex. Ores have to be dug out of the ground and the metals extracted. These have to be turned into parts. Other components have to be brought together: rubber tyres, plastic dashboards, paint, and so on. All of this involves transporting things around the world. The whole lot then has to be assembled, and every stage in the process requires energy. The companies that make cars have offices and other infrastructure with their own carbon footprints, which we need to somehow allocate proportionately to the cars that are made.
In other words, even more than with most items, the manufacture of a car causes ripples that extend throughout the economy. To give just one simple example among millions, the assembly plant uses phones and they in turn had to be manufactured, along with the phone lines that transmit the calls. The ripples go on and on for ever. Attempts to capture all these stages by adding them up individually are doomed from the outset to result in an underestimate, because the task is just too big.
The best we can do is use so-called input-output analysis to break up the known total emissions of the world or a country into different industries and sectors, in the process taking account of how each industry consumes the goods and services of all the others. If we do this, and then divide by the total emissions of the auto industry by the total amount of money spent on new cars, we reach a footprint of 720kg CO2e per £1000 spent.
This is only a guideline figure, of course, as some cars may be more efficiently produced than others of the same price. But it's a reasonable ballpark estimate, and it suggests that cars have much bigger footprints than is traditionally believed. Producing a medium-sized new car costing £24,000 may generate more than 17 tonnes of CO2e – almost as much as three years' worth of gas and electricity in the typical UK home.