USHSLA takes on animal rights group over incorrect billboard
19/10/2017
Using billboard advertising, the campaign mocks up a singer being stripped of her skin and proclaims that leather is “a rip-off” because leather jackets and leather upholstery used to be “someone’s skin”. In a press release to draw attention to the campaign, the animal rights group claims that “cows killed for leather may be skinned and dismembered while still conscious”.
USHSLA has monitored coverage of the campaign and written directly to journalists that have written about it to offer them an expert comment for inclusion in updated online stories.
In the comment, USHSLA president, Stephen Sothmann, says: “While the billboard is meant to shock consumers, [the] underlying message is just plain incorrect. Animal hides and skins are by-products of the meat industry that have been recycled and turned into leather after the animals have been properly processed under the supervision of government inspectors. The animals are unconscious when the hide or skin is removed.”
Mr Sothmann said in the days following the start of the campaign that only three reports on it had appeared in Detroit media and that USHSLA had already succeeded in convincing one journalist to amend her original article to include the comment.
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