PETA Launches Campaign to Steer Mercedes Away from Leather Seats

Actor James Cromwell Asks DaimlerChrysler Execs for Meeting to Discuss Cruelty-Free Options

Norfolk, VA (PRWEB) January 25, 2004

PETA has launched an international campaign aimed at getting DaimlerChrysler, makers of Mercedes-Benz luxury automobiles, to offer nonleather upholstery options for all models of the company’s cars. The campaign follows PETA’s successful efforts to pressure DaimlerChrysler-India to make alternatives to leather interiors available in Mercedes cars manufactured and sold in India. Actor James Cromwell, who starred in such blockbuster films as The Sum of All Fears, The Green Mile, and Babe, as well as HBO’s hit series Six Feet Under, has sent a letter on behalf of PETA to DaimlerChrysler Management Board Chair Jürgen Schrempp, asking for a face-to-face meeting to make the case for nonleather options.

PETA points out that leather is offensive to millions of people, including environmentalists, the many Hindus and Jains who help make up America’s wealthiest minority community, and the growing number of vegetarians and vegans worldwide. PETA first got the automaker’s attention when a well-to-do Texas shopping-center owner tore the leather out of her brand-new Mercedes, replaced it with a luxurious synthetic, and had PETA’s "cow" mascot deliver the discarded skins to DaimlerChrysler headquarters.

What’s PETA’s beef with leather? It takes the skins of anywhere from four to 15 cows to produce the leather interior of just one car. While some automakers try to rationalize their use of leather by claiming that it’s simply a "byproduct" of the meat industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture more accurately states that leather is "the most valuable coproduct of the meatpacking industry." Production-line speed-ups and inadequate stunning measures at slaughterhouses in the U.S. and E.U. mean that cows killed for their skins and flesh are often dismembered or killed while they are still conscious.

"DaimlerChrysler is hurting itself, as well as thousands of cows, by refusing to offer nonleather interiors for all its models," says PETA campaigner Poorva Joshipura. "Many wealthy consumers find nothing luxurious about dead skin and want top-of-the-line cars that do not come specially equipped with a whole lot of misery."

James Cromwell’s letter to Jürgen Schrempp is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA’s Web site CowsAreCool.com.