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Top vegan DJ Dara Hayes – better known as DJ Tigerlily – is calling on consumers to ditch leather and opt for plant-based fashion alternatives instead.
The DJ is working with Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV) to promote the message via a campaign video, and posters which will be plastered across Melbourne.
Rescue cow
DJ Tigerlily appears in the video and posters with rescued cow Strongheart. The poster slogan reads: “Strongheart’s skin belongs to him.”
The non-graphic campaign video features footage of Strongheart as a five-day-old calf in an abattoir holding pen, where he was rescued by ALV on the night before his slaughter, as well as the animal as fully grown, and living at ALV’s Liberation Sanctuary among other rescue cows.
‘Skin is sold for profit’
Speaking in the video, DJ Tigerlily says: “In the meat and dairy industries, the flesh and skin of slaughtered cows are sold for a profit. For this reason, these industries define leather as a ‘co-product’. The skins of newborn male calves killed in the dairy industry are especially valuable because they are so soft.”
She suggests alternative, vegan fabrics – including leather made from polyurethane, pineapple leaves, apples, cork, washable paper and other materials.
She adds: “All of these materials are better for the environment than leather, which is the single most environmentally impactful material to produce…when we buy leather, we financially support the slaughter of cows.”
