PETA article and the facts.... they chose to leave OUT!!

Talk about feeling like you have just been ran over by a train. This article printed in the Furniture Today on Elizabeth Edwards Not to Sell Leather was so poorly researched and was printed without any regard to any of US leather companies or the leather furniture manufacture's. Thanks for caring about the environment Furniture Today! We all have businesses to run and the fact is the leather is a by product of the beef industry. WE DO NOT KILL COWS FOR THEIR SOFAS, CHAIRS, BELTS ETC.... Cows are raised for CONSUMPTION and if the person writing this article would have been fair they would have told both sides of the issue. If all of the retailers decided not be buy leather then we really would have an environmental issue with decomposing cow carcuses everywhere. Not to mention the financial ruin for many companies. No Leather is not the answer that will service the world. The fact is we consume so much beef in the US and the hide market is a commodity traded based on beef consumption. How many of us eat no type of beef? If you eat any you are contributing. So, I hope this retailer is a vegan. Death of any animal is sad, but we americans like to eat BEEF so I don't think it is going to stop. The furniture manufacture's and leather manufacture's do not kill the cows we only put the waste, which is the hide, to good use. As for the broad unsubatantiated statements about all of the sickness, if you buy product from any 3rd world country you risk environmental compromise. Different standards can be set by every company in any industry and the same is true in the leather industry. Some companies have higher standards than other and choose to produce product using the environmentally friendly processes. It is up to the buyer or the consumer to buy better poroducts and not the cheapest product available. We have leathers manufactured in German and Italy and everything is produced using state of the art environmentally friendly tanning processes. We ad hear to standards that the EPA sets and guidelines to keep the process safe. We do not use PCP or formaldehyde n our process that could cause sickness. We recycle all of our water on site and do not have have a huge waste issue. We constantly work on improving our standards in our factories. Safety is key in any process. Think about the petroleum used to create a non leather material as the article recommended. Think about the natural resources that you cannot replace that is being used. Petroleum! I guess that part is not important to PETA. It is just mother earth. So, the NON leather is not GREEN either. Whichever direction you go you will not be free of some blame to the demise of the environment. Well as you can see this really got under my skin. It is not like we are out hunting a Zebra and dragging it back to use the hide only and dumping the meat. I am just very surprised that Furniture Today would print this when it is an opinion and not fact and no research was done. I guess we can all write about whatever we want regarding furniture and send it to Furniture Today and they will print it... Oh ! Wait that's a blog.