My Mom and I were talking about leather last week. There are still plenty of animals being butchered for meat but, where do all those hides go now? The post below has it wrong. They are assuming there is a demand for leather. When did you last see or touch anything that was 100% real leather from an animal? Think carefully because a lot can be labelled leather without actually being leather. Of course, its not quite false advertising because there are loopholes to get around almost any and all laws which used to govern marketing. So, it is unlikely anything called leather is actually authentic, real, actual leather from an animal hide.

Leather has always been a byproduct of the meat industry, and as Americans' beef consumption grew over the 20th century, the leather industry grew with it. The past three decades, though, have seen a decline of about 28 percent in Americans' appetite for beef, and the supply of hides has dwindled accordingly. At the same time, drought in the Midwest has pushed up feed prices. The result is that America has fewer and more expensive cows. Meanwhile, the world's consumers still want leather goods.

Source: Your Salad Lunches Are Killing American Leather - Bloomberg Business, 2015.

So, what does happen to all those hides? In Ontario we used to hear advertising (and even visited) the Olde Hide House in Acton, Ontario. Its been closed years ago, not enough business. No shortage of hides. Even though towards the end a lot of them were not coming from Canadian animals. Hides were sent from South America, not in the best of shape, but likely cheaper and maybe more available because it was not a great business for Canadian animal farmers to sell hides. The cost to have the hide processed was not balancing the money made from the sale of the hide.

Too much competition from the fake leather which did not need a lot of processing because it was not taken from any animal. Pleather, plastic leather, did not come from any animal. Carry on with all the other faux leather types, you can see how the business of making leather from animal hides went downhill.

But, we still have all those animals being eaten. So what does happen to all that could-have-been leather? It didn't disappear. Likely a lot of it is included in pet food. That's an easy way to sell parts of animal not sold as steaks, etc. Do you ever wonder what goes into that pet food they sell as pure beef, etc?

This leaves a whole possible business (if someone could come up with an idea) for animal hides to be used again, as something other than pet food, compost, or whatever it currently is going into. Can you think of any ideas? I can't either. The problem is still the cost of processing the hides. Turning hides into leather is not neat and tidy, it stinks, literally. Are there even any places still in Canada that cure hides? Its not something you can just hop into. Think of all the government control there would be for dealing with animal hides. Even before you can think of some new product (that would be cost efficient to make and sell well). Workers would need to be trained and its not a nice job so workers might not be found in Canada.

I don't think the leather industry, as it is, will see a come back. The faux leather is so much easier and cheaper to produce. It sells just as well as the real leather ever did. I doubt people, in general, could tell the difference. Another thing, real leather wears too well. It doesn't rip, fade, or need to be replaced often enough. So once you buy a real leather purse, coat, couch, etc. its not going to need to be replaced for a long time. Meanwhile all that faux leather can generate lots of sales - its not designed to last. Like most of the products made these days. The plan is to sell, sell, sell! Sell junk so you can sell more. Marketing at work!

Lastly, the beef industry and the guilt trip given about eating salad, or meals which do not heavily include beef/ meat. This idea of meat heavy meals is a more modern thing. People long ago did not have the amount of meat in their diet as we do now. Plates at restaurants, on cooking shows, and so on are at least two thirds meat, if not far more. That is not even healthy for people. Long before people could not choose to butcher an animal more than once a year. They were needed to provide milk and eggs, or eat bugs, some kind of service. The plates of pioneers, people from even 50 years ago would not have been meat heavy. It was expensive, not as available and people ate more vegetables. Dishes were more likely to include meat as an ingredient than to be on the plate at all. Soups, stews, all of those would use meat bones boiled down to create flavour. If there was still some meat from those bones it could be added. Meat was not abundant as it is now.

So these meat farmers complaining about salad eaters are basing this on an inflated market. A market created to sell beef/ meat. Like the faux leather, the marketing went wild, with no control over what the market actually could support in sales. Generating sales worked, too well. If you knew how many animals are slaughtered to feed people every day... its a kind of sickening. I'm not a vegetarian, I do eat meat, but I don't take it for granted. I do balance how much meat I eat with more vegetables on my plate. I don't eat out very much because those meals are just too meat heavy, not practical or realistic for what people really need to eat.

Protein is shouted all over the ads for anything edible now. I would not be surprised to see some company marketing ice cream as protein rich. It will have protein. But also a lot of sweetener you don't need. Protein can be found in food other than meat and dairy. How much protein are people eating, being kind of obsessed with it (like a food fad) versus what they really need? Eating too much of anything is not good. That is something you could look into for your own health/ needs.

Anyway, if people could stop eating so much meat they could be healthier and the environment would be better with less production of meat (meat takes far more resources than it does to produce vegetables and fruit). Don't take for granted all those animals which would not be born, live less than a year, and then slaughtered. I'm not expecting, or wanting, to stop eating meat, but there is no need to mass produce it at the current rate. Especially when so much of that animal is not being used but left as byproducts. Have you ever thought about the amount of bacon sold versus the rest of the pig killed to produce bacon? Its not just beef cattle out there being served up on a platter.

I'm interested in Ontario history, including our rural heritage. (I volunteer with Ontario Barn Preservation).

Today I found several links about heritage apples, forgotten apple varieties and trees in Ontario, and information about pruning and growing trees from the seeds of the old apples you might find on a road trip here and there.

My Mother and Grandparents talk about the apples they used to have for making pies and wonder where they could still find those now. They don't see them sold in farmer's markets and certainly not in stores any more.

I found a few good links and then this book, by Sher Leetooze, "Identifying Heritage Apples Across Ontario". I bought a copy of the book. I'm hoping it will include greening apples. A variety my Mother mentions every year. She remembers them being the first, early apples available each year. They grow (grew) here in Ontario but we haven't found any yet.

Orchard People

The Kitchen Orchard

The Ontario Heritage and Feral Apple Project

Pick some wild apples this year. You could even try planting some of the old trees seldom seen any more. Give them a chance to get a new start and have apples close at hand when you get into pie making mode.

I was watching the episodes of Snow Leopards of Leafy London, about the National Cat Trust, with Dr. Terry Moore in the UK. Although its great to see someone taking in cats who have no where else to go. In the end, they are living in captivity for however long they live. Not able to have space, hunt, and live a feral life. He also breeds them. It wasn't clear if he also lets the domestic cats breed too. The Trust takes in domestic homeless cats as well as the big cats. I hope the Trust works on some version of the neuter and release idea.

The series was made awhile ago and I wondered what became of the cats, especially the snow leopards which were featured, and the Trust. I found the website, not really updated since 2013 it seems to me. I didn't see any updates about the snow leopard release project with India which was talked about often in the films. There is some project based in Argentina.

Also, interesting, was to find that his wife was part of things, one of the trustees for the organization. But, she was never mentioned in the films. If she were there, she wasn't given credit for her work.

I found reviews on the TripAdvisor site, which made the Trust seem overwhelmed. Not enough volunteers to look after the place. Also, no visitors due to restrictions. That may be changed now, but it was only for sponsors/ members of the Trust. Not a bad thing, no doubt they need the funds. Feeding big cats would be expensive.

I posted this as a comment on Facebook:

I don't think any of these kept cats can go back to the wild. Even if a habitat could be found for them. These cats have had an indolent lifestyle. They will have hunting instincts but no practice. So they will not have the skills or the muscles built up to take care of themselves without someone feeding them dead carcasses. So they will look for humans to feed them, leaving the wild areas and likely end up being shot by people who are afraid of big cats approaching them. It's really sad to see these cats being bred in captivity to live their lives in small spaces, never having space to roam and be wild.

I love cats of all sizes. But, I think it is very misled to breed them in cat farms like this. Without a sure place to release them into the wild and a lifestyle which keeps them fit and skilled (and not relying on humans to feed them) there isn't real hope for these cats to live anywhere but in concrete with a little patch of grass. Cats need to wander and roam and hunt. Even domestic cats will have a territory (unless they are kept indoors all their lives).

It would be very hard, if not impossible, to have these kept cats able to adapt and live in their natural home now. They've adapted to our environment, our culture, pollution, schedule, etc. Like being a tourist in another country, they would not know the local culture, the language and the ways of the other big cats who were born to the wild life in that area. They would not know what to eat when seasons change and prey migrate or change their habits. They won't know or have natural defenses from other animals, insects, and diseases.

Their ancestors could be from that area but it would be culture shock for them to be dropped into a new place and left to learn how to survive. Having eaten dead meat all their lives, is it possible they would only look along roadways and other places they could smell roadkill and dead animals. Are their bodies able to live that way, deal with the parasites and such which they would pick up from dead meat versus the freshly killed animals they would eat naturally.

I wish the Cat Trust well but I think the project is really Terry Moore and volunteers making friends and pets out of these cats. Cats can be great pets, but not every cat should be kept as a pet.

Trying to give them a better life is a great ambition, but breeding them is selfish not selfless. There is no natural selection when females are forced to be bred/ pregnant every few months or every year with whatever male is closed in with them.

Not every female will want to be having batches of kittens constantly. I've seen domestic cats abandon new born kittens because they did not want them. I'm sure that must happen with big cats too.

Kept big cats do not live a natural, healthy, active life. Are they physically strong enough to have kittens? Being pampered and inactive means these big cats may not have the strength and stamina for pregnancy and birth. They are not exposed to conditions which toughen wild big cats, including bacteria, which they build immunity to. They just don't make pet happy documentaries about any of these things.

I don't think this will end well. Other places like this have failed, had to close. The cats are left homeless when shelters can't be found for all of them. When there are reports about big cats wandering and hunting in rural and suburban areas, its likely true. How many of them are cats which grew up in zoos/farms which had to close and let the cats out of their cages rather than euthanizing them. It is not a kindness to breed cats, or any animal, just to hoard them in captivity.