The recent World Leather Congress held early November 2021 in Addis Ababa launched the message to the World: Leather, a gift of nature, writes Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano, General Secretary of the European tanners organization COTANCE.

And, indeed, it is a gift! The hides and skins recycled into leather arise as a residue from the food industry. Leather cleans the act of the livestock sector. There is no cattle, sheep or goat that is slaughtered for its skin! These occur as part of the “Fifth Quarter”, a gift for the people! A natural product that avoids the need of polluting plastics.

Yet there are people out there, ignorants, who blame tanners for poor animal welfare or deforestation. That is tantamount of blaming the gravedigger for the dead of the people.

Tanners are no “gravediggers”, they produce long-lasting beauty capturing carbon! … but that is a fact that ignorants can’t understand…

Read the December COTANCE Newsletter and learn how tanners provide feedback to their suppliers on animal welfare issues. https://mailchi.mp/fcf5057bc01d/leather-a-gift-of-nature