Supremely Cruel: PETA Ad Points to Leather-Wearing Kim Jong Un as Bad for the Planet

Seoul— With a knack for threatening nuclear annihilation, is it any surprise that North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong Un likes to make public appearances in a double-breasted trench coat in black leather? PETA Asia thinks not! As the group’s international advertising campaign points out, leather is cruel to animals and wreaks havoc on the environment—making it the perfect look for anyone who wants to project utter disdain for future generations coupled with complete indifference to planetary devastation. (hi-res photos are available here)

“Leather production requires enormous amounts of energy and dangerous chemicals, all for jackets and bags that condemn cows and calves to short, miserable lives before they’re killed,” says PETA Asia Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA urges anyone still wearing the ‘Supreme leader look’ to think toward the future and choose sustainable vegan materials that are kind to the planet and leave animals in peace.”

Cows used for leather are castrated and branded and their tails are cut off—all without painkillers—before they’re violently killed. In addition, animal agriculture, which includes the leather industry, is responsible for nearly one-fifth of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, and turning skin into leather requires the use of toxic chemicals like formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and cyanide-based oils, dyes, and finishes. Sustainable vegan leather made from apples, cork, corn, grapes, mushrooms, paper, pineapples, soy, or tea mimics the properties of leather without the cruelty to animals or environmental devastation.

PETA Asia—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.

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