CAIRO: Egyptian leather is known for its unique texture, due to Egypt's climate. Egypt's leather industry's annual income is about $600 million. The labor force is made up of about 250,000 workers and has 300 leather tanners. They produce 125 million square feet of leather a year. The 300 leather tanners and much of the industry are in old Cairo, however, a change of scenery is underway. The leather industry is in a relocation phase as the tanners and the industry move to Rubeiky District of Badr City, about an hour east of Cairo. This relocation will provide the industry a new environment called “The City of Leather.” This “City of Leather” will provide a modern leather technology center, design centers, vocational training schools, testing facilities and other major services important to the industry. The “City of Leather” is already underway and will be completed in the next 5 years. This is not the only plan of the leather industry. Major importers of Egyptian leather include Spain, the United States, Italy and China as well as many other countries of the region. The Egyptian leather industry plans to gain $600 million of exports in the next three years. This is not a good sign for the animals they peal for leather. Ashley Fruno, Senior Campaigner for PETA Asia, said that “Buying leather directly contributes to factory farms and slaughterhouses since skin is the most economically important byproduct of the meat-packing industry.” Egypt has dealt with Australia in importing live cattle since 1995. Since then, the Australia government has suspended cattle exporting numerous times due to cattle handling in Egypt. In 2006, for example, a documentary named “Australian Live Exports to the Middle East” showed live cattle having their tendons slashed and eyes gouged out by Egyptian cattle hands. One cow in particular was blind folded and beaten with a metal pole, as a form of navigation. They navigated the cow down a slippery concrete walk way then they cut its back-leg tendons. They then proceeded to slaughter this cow still blind folded. This documentary produced public outrage and forced the Australian government to react with the immediate halting on live exports to Egypt. Two years later, according to Animals Australia, 16,500 cattle are to be shipped to Egypt—where they argue animal rights are not enforced. The Executive Director Animals Australia, Glenys Oogjes said on their website that “the welfare of Australian cattle will not be protected in Egypt. At this new abattoir they will be subjected to the stress of a restraint box which will trap their bodies and rotate them 140 degrees before having their throats cut whilst fully conscious.” Oogjes added that “cattle can take up to 2 minutes to lose consciousness after the throat cut, causing them immense suffering.” Egypt is not alone in animal cruelty in the Middle-East. Oman, Kuwait and other regional countries have also been under pressure to change their slaughterhouse methods. Currently, Jordan is the only Middle Eastern country to practice “humane slaughtering' of live cattle. The way they achieve this is by stunning the animal before what proponents say is a seemingly painless slaughter. “There is no humane way to kill cattle without stunning them unconscious first. This should be the live export industry's stand,” said Oogjes. However, the slaughterhouse is not the only place they get mistreated. During shipment the cattle are often crammed into ships like sardines and forced to stand in their own feces. In February this year, a reported 200 cattle died on a ship from Australia to Egypt. People in the industry say that 10 percent of their livestock die in the shipping process. Jason Baker, director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for Asia Pacific, said, “they die of dehydration, starvation and even some simply stop eating.” Fruno added that “many people who care about animals refuse to buy leather because animals killed for their skins suffer all the horrors of factory farming, including extreme crowding and confinement, deprivation, castration without painkillers, branding, tail-docking, dehorning, and cruel treatment during transport and slaughter.” Animal rights are not Egypt's, or much of the world's, concern. Many people believe that people should deal with the problems of humans before animals. A lot of the issues in Egypt such as minimum wage, women's rights, and education, deal with the human and how humans treat with each other. Fixing the problem of hurting living creatures will fix the problems hurting humanity, many argue. “Whoever is kind to the creatures of God is kind to himself,” said the Prophet Mohamed on the subject. BM
