...[A]ctivists of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), along with international journalist Manfred Karremann, investigated the billion-dollar leather industry in Bangladesh...PETA video narrated by British singer Leona Lewis exposes, as she says, "who is paying the highest price for leather": child labourers and the animals who are skinned alive for shoes, belts, jackets, handbags and other products that are exported around the world...Tanneries use toxic chemicals to prevent animals' skin from decaying. Unprotected workers, including children, stand barefoot as they soak hides in carcinogenic chemicals, cut the skins with knives, and operate dangerous machinery - some losing fingers in the process. The toxic waste is then dumped into the river, which has become a bubbling swamp. Most workers have chronic respiratory problems because of the chemical vapours and lack of ventilation. An estimated 90 per cent of tannery workers die before reaching the age of 50.
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