Morrissey Asks GM For “Vegan Leather” Option

If you haven’t heard the former Smiths front man wax poetic on the virtues of clean, meat-free living you must have been living in a cave. He is quite rabid on the subject as you might imagine.

Morrissey has criticised General Motors for not offering a vegan leather option for its car interiors.

In an open letter, the former Smiths frontman called on the car manufacturer to change its policy in the wake of a PETA video exposé that revealed the mistreatment of animals by GM’s leather suppliers.

Here’s the text of the letter (via NME):

Mary T Barra
Chair and CEO
General Motors Company

21 November 2016

Dear Ms Barra,

As I head to Detroit to play the Royal Oak Music Theatre, I’m writing to ask GM to make Chevy’s Volt and Bolt more eco-friendly by giving buyers the option to choose vegan leather interiors–including steering wheels and gear shifts. GM is named in PETA’s brand-new investigation of cattle ranches, on which animals are branded on the face, electro-shocked, and beaten before they’re slaughtered and used to make leather interiors for car companies, including yours.

More and more people are opting for vegan leather for the sake of both cows and the environment. A staggering 51 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions are caused by animal agriculture. Animal skins also have to be treated with a toxic soup of chemicals in order to keep them from decomposing, and runoff from leather tanneries poisons vital waterways.

Given that the Volt and Bolt are being marketed to eco-conscious buyers, entirely vegan options would only broaden their appeal. I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Morrissey

Read more here.