Temple Grandin’s latest book reminds us that people really care about the animal welfare and land management behind their leather products. Forward-thinking businesses are embracing this and working smartly to meet consumer demand for greater traceability. 

One of the loudest debates in this industry has been framed as a battle between those who are ‘pro-animal’ versus those who are ‘pro-leather’. Online search engines and marketing experts have decided the term ‘humane leather’ is synonymous with ‘vegan’ or synthetic alternatives to leather, rather than the real thing. Animal welfare expert Temple Grandin, whose latest book was released at the end of 2022, reminds us of a third stance: one can be pro-animal and pro-leather.

The book, Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns and Abstractions, is focused more broadly on the way the author’s mind works. She literally thinks in pictures, and the latest research into the benefits of different ways of thinking is also part of the focus. It is a reminder that Dr Grandin’s unique perspective is what has enabled her decades-long paradigm-shifting efforts in the humane treatment of livestock.

World Leather has written extensively about Dr Grandin's fascinating work in the Nothing to Hide* essay, ‘The importance of animal welfare to the leather industry’ (essay number two in the series), so we will not try to recap it all here. But the flurry of attention her latest book has generated gives a new opportunity to pause and take note: a sustainable leather industry must be one that values animal welfare and healthy land management, and demonstrates this to consumers through transparency and traceability.

Those who are working closely in this space say that consumer demand for humane and conscientiously produced leather is growing. The ability to demonstrate where one’s new bag, jacket, shoes, and car interior originated is becoming a necessity within the leather supply chain. 

What does humane leather look like?

Dr Grandin credits her autism for her tendency to think in pictures and to view the world more sensorially, as animals do. This, she says, is what has allowed her to identify simple steps that can eradicate trauma and fear from a cow’s experience. 

In a recent interview on BBC Radio, she gave an example of this. “Right now I’m thinking about non-slip flooring and I’m seeing how cattle come down to the stun-box,” she told presenter Evan Davis. “You put a non-slip floor in there and they stop jumping around because they’re not slipping; a very simple modification that makes a big difference.”

Seemingly innocuous details that might go unnoticed by a human can be frightening for a cow. “I often get asked, ‘[are] they afraid of being slaughtered?’” she says. “No, they’re more scared of shadows, of vehicles going by, of coats on fences.”

If done right, Dr Grandin says the animals should have a good life and then, when the time comes, going into an abattoir should be a non-event. “If you get rid of the distractions like the shadows, the reflections, seeing people up ahead,” she said, “you open the door to the stun-box and they walk right in.”

Humane animal management also means incorporating the Five Freedoms, as established by a UK animal welfare council decades ago. These include access to fresh water and a healthy diet; an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area; freedom from pain, injury or disease by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment; sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind; and freedom from fear and distress, with conditions that avoid mental suffering.

Today there are countless ranches and abattoirs that hold such ideas to be paramount. For example, White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, GA, uses regenerative grazing practices and holistic management, allowing animals to roam freely and breed naturally. And, as the company explains on its website: “As much as we are committed to providing our animals with a peaceful, healthy life, we are committed to offering them a humane and dignified death.” The plant was designed by Dr Grandin and “is focused on keeping our animals at ease”.

Though not yet the norm, ranches like these can be found in many parts of the world.  So how can the leather industry make wider use of such suppliers, increase awareness of them, and bring peace of mind to consumers?

Creating traceability

Based in Decorah, Iowa, Behumane launched in 2018 with the aim of providing consumers and brands with the answer to questions like: Where did my product come from? How did it get to me? Does this company align with my values? The company integrates into various points of the leather supply chain, selling wet blue, finished leather, and small leathergoods, with the raw material sourced from ranches that have high animal welfare standards and practise regenerative agriculture. 

Today, Behumane is working with more than 100 ranchers who handle upwards of 70,000 head of cattle in different parts of the western United States. “We have built and designed our own supply chain with forward-thinking partners who agree the future should be more transparent,” founder, Danielle Dotzenrod, tells World Leather. The company ensures “segregation and identification procedures are met in order to offer our customers traceability through full transparency”.

And it is doing this at scale, she says. Behumane is working with tanneries in the US and overseas that “recognise the need to have responsibly-sourced leather readily available to their clients”, and with businesses that range from “some of the world’s largest shoe manufacturers, to small- and medium-size brands known primarily for their leather reputation, to industry leaders in responsible sourcing whose last piece of the puzzle was traceable leather.” 

This can include inserting blued hides or leather into a brand’s current supply or handling the leather from sourcing through manufacturing, which brings Ms Dotzenrod into regular contact with every part of the supply chain. Because of this, she has learned that attitudes toward the need for transparency and traceability vary. Ranches, she says, are the quickest to get on board with a company like Behumane. “We find ranchers that align with the work we are doing and the change we are trying to help make,” she says. “They are the ones doing the real work so the process should start with them.”

Ranchers understand the value in highlighting humane and eco-friendly practices, according to Ms Dotzenrod. She explains: “They have been the leaders in the traceable food movement from the beginning. Transparency and trust with their customers and consumers in animal welfare and responsible soil health practices are at the core of their values.” 
In approaching tanneries for potential partnerships, however, Ms Dotzenrod initially met with some resistance.

Increasing demand from brands is changing that, though. “If a tannery can’t or won’t supply traceability, brands are building new relationships with those who are willing to evolve in order to provide it.”

She finds brands are showing the most interest in greater traceability. This is due not only to increased consumer expectations, says Ms Dotzenrod, but to growing government regulations around animal welfare and soil health practices. And consumer attitudes? “They are only going to care more,” she says. “We’re never going backwards from here. Brands want to live up to their promises and traceability is the only way to do it.”

However, demand alone can not lead to greater traceability. Ms Dotzenrod feels a company like hers fulfils a key role in filling the gaps between parties in the supply chain. “Being able to prove the source of the hides, back to the ranch, is what brands care about most,” she says, but relatively few slaughterhouses are “willing to share their specific ranch sources and segregate the hides accordingly.” Strong partnerships with the ranches are critical to making that happen.
Behumane builds and oversees its entire supply chain from sourcing through point of sale. “It’s our critical relationship with the right ranches, our ownership and management of the hides, and our ability to oversee, document and prove, and report our entire supply chain with transparency to our customers that are the differentiators.”

Ranches, abattoirs, tanneries, and brands that are not already prioritising traceability (and a supply chain that originates with well-treated animals on regenerative land) should be paying attention. There is a real demand for responsibly sourced leather, says Ms Dotzenrod. “The days of all hides being commodities are gone and the value of hides is going to vary according to their ranch origin.”

Pursuing transparency

Spoor, the Danish brand that branched off from Scan-Hide, is another example of the growing body of products and services offering solutions to the challenges of traceability.

Established in 2020, Scan-Hide sources raw hides directly from abattoirs and, at its tannery in Vester Skerninge, Denmark, registers ear tags and the information they contain into its own system. Using laser technology, Scan-Hide then imprints each hide with a number linked to the animal’s ear tag; this laser mark remains throughout the entire tanning and refinement process, allowing all partners in the supply chain to know where the leather in any given product originated. On behalf of finished-product brands, Spoor takes semi-processed hides from its parent company and arranges for them to be finished at partner tanneries that undertake to keep the traceability commitment in place.

“Our definition of traceability goes back to a single farm and animal, since this is where it all begins,” Birgitte Holgaard Langer, Spoor’s business development director, tells World Leather. “In order to have the full control, insight and documentation behind a piece of leather, traceability is needed.” This is about moving brands from “believing to knowing,” she says, adding that “data and documentation will be increasingly important for conscious brands.”
Like Ms Dotzenrod, Ms Langer says her company is seeing increasing interest in, and demand for, leather from farms with high standards of humane animal management. The motivation for this varies from one brand to another.

“Documentation on animal welfare is one,” she says; “brands understand the interconnection in our ecosystem.” Others need accurate data for lifecycle assessment calculations, or desire to work with transparent materials, or simply “wish to improve the product and processes towards a more responsible future.”

Ms Langer also praised the general willingness from Spoor’s partners to learn about traceability, while parent company Scan-Hide is continuously seeking new circular solutions in the way it tans its Nordic hides. 

“We have created a culture where we are all motivated by finding better ways than what we had yesterday,” she says; co-creation is a key, in terms of identifying the company’s own ecosystem and how partners within it can improve together. “Sustainable progress cannot be done in silos, but connecting the dots and finding solutions across value chains is a very fruitful way of working.”

Asking the difficult questions

Temple Grandin has said: “We’ve got to give cows a good life.” If cattle are being treated humanely and the land is being used responsibly, then one of the leather industry’s most pressing goals should be demonstrating this to the end consumer. 

As Ms Dotzenrod points out, this might start with more questions than answers. “Legitimate regenerative agriculture has to be scientifically practised, proven and documented by the ranchers,” she says. If the leather and fashion industry wants to get on board, it has to figure out which ranches hides come from and ask what their practices are, if their animals are treated humanely, if they have access to pasture and if the farm is practising regenerative agriculture.
These are hard questions and, in Ms Dotzenrod’s experience, traceability initiatives in the past often stopped at the slaughterhouse because downstream supply chain partners did not really want to know the answers. Now, though, the answers are there for those who have the courage to ask. 

* Nothing to Hide, a series of essays covering the science, technology and ecology of the leather industry www.nothing-to-hide.org

Traceability can assure consumers leather has come from a humanely managed source.
Credit: Gatien Gregori/Shutterstock

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