LEATHER INTERIORS OF MERCEDES IRK MANEKA GANDHI & OTHERS

Topic started by BAN LEATHER (@ ppp-219.65.97.188.chn.vsnl.net.in) on Mon Nov 3 15:15:33 EST 2003.
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LEATHER INTERIORS OF MERCEDES IRK MANEKA GANDHI & OTHERS
Annoyed over the use of leather interiors in Mercedes-Benz models, Mrs. Maneka Gandhi, MP and animal rights activist, has threatened to launch "a mass campaign" against its brands in India. She has written to the company, "I thought that you might like to change your attitude and offer non-leather interiors." Mrs. Gandhi has sent this letter to Hans-Michael Huber, Managing Director and CEO of Daimler Chrysler India, owner of the Mercedes-Benz brand cars. Maneka Gandhi, in her letter, has threatened that her campaign would involve religious leaders and politicians as well as the heads of business associations and communities. According to the PETA statement, a company reportedly supplies Daimler Chrysler with hundreds of thousand skins each year, and it is estimated that the skins of four cows or more are used for the interior of just one car.

"Synthetic materials that look and feel like leather are used by companies like BMW and Audi and are often described by consumers as superior because of their ease of care and other advantages and because their production does not come with the high cost of animal suffering," says PETA Director of Asian Campaigns, Poorva Joshipura. "There is no good reason for Daimler Chrysler's insistence on using the skins of tortured animals at all, but at the very least, the company should recognize that offering all models of its cars with a non-leather option would prevent it from losing more business from the world's many wealthy vegetarians."

Former Union Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Raghvendra Prasad Singh, famous Jain leader in USA, Chitrabhanu jee, the Director-General of the India Ahimsa Organisations and the head of the UK-based Young Indian Vegetarians are among others, who have found the automobile company's insistence on using leather interiors in its top models as "offensive." They have also sent strong protests to Daimler Chrysler. From: "Siddharth K Shah"


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