Leather: from slaughterhouse to tannery

Ontario, Canada

Two cow slaughterhouses are situated directly across from each other on one street in Toronto, right in a bustling shopping area of the city, yet out of the sight of most residents. Transport trucks filled with very much alive and frightened cows arrive regularly at the slaughterhouses. Once they are forced into the slaughterhouse it’s not long before their still-swarm skins are witnessed leaving the slaughterhouse, dragged on a hook along a conveyor belt and then dropped into a dump truck. 

The dump truck leaves the slaughterhouse and delivers the mounds of skins of the just killed cows to a leather tannery on the same road, often leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

At the tannery workers can be seen bathing the bloody skins in large vats of chemical solutions. The chemical fumes coming from the building are overwhelming. Chemically bathed and dripping skins can be seen being dragged on hooks along a conveyor belt. There they are folded and placed onto skids for the flatbed truck to load and deliver to be processed into garments. 

Many people will argue that wearing the skins of animals is more environmentally friendly than non-animal leather. Yet, like us, when a cow dies they begin to decompose. In order to stop the decomposition, the skin must be treated with chemicals that include Alum, syntans, Alum, syntans (man-made chemicals), formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, and glutaraldehyde all of which are known to be harmful to the environment, to wildlife, and to workers.