Hi @FamilyOfAliens thanks for tagging me.
I think there’s a similarity with leather and sheepskin although the details are hard to come by - I can’t find much on comparing the two products.
Both leather and skin are touted as ‘by-products’ and as a means to reduce waste - those skins from slaughtered animals otherwise wouldn’t be used, right? There’s also the sense that buying leather or sheepskin is different than fur - fur is sourced primarily from animals that are killed from their skin. Many people have the sense that leather and sheepskin is different - animals aren’t slaughtered just for skin.
But we can make a distinction between ‘by-product’ and ‘co-product’. A by-product is a secondary product that is made in the manufacture of something else. A ‘co-product’ is a desirable secondary good, which can be sold for profit. Leather and sheepskin are co-products - they are sold primarily to make profit. Not to minimise waste.
Further, in some cases, it’s the skin itself which is the primary source of income, and not the meat. Calfskin is an example of this - less people are eating veal these days, but the demand for soft, unblemished calfskin leather is high. Ostrich is the same - the estimates I’ve seen are that 80% of the value of the birds come from their skin. So in some cases, the skin is a primarily product, the main income stream.
I realise that most leather isn’t calfskin or ostrich, but it’s an illustration - skin is just another way of profiting from the farming and slaughter of animals.
If a farmer wants to monetise a flock of sheep or herd of cows, there will be different ways of doing this. A flock of sheep can be monetised by selling lambs for meet, wool, older sheep for mutton, and sheepskin. A herd of cows might make a farmer money through dairy, meat and through leather.
If people were to stop buying leather, the meat industry would suffer. If people were to stop buying meat, the leather industry would suffer. Rearing a cow to slaughter is more profitable if you can sell the meat and the skin. We need to see it for what it is - skin is a way of making money from an animal, not a way of reducing waste. Farmers sell skin because they’re making good money from it.
For me it’s a perception thing - animals are slaughter for their meat and their skin. Both are profitable outcomes of rearing and slaughtering animals.