Four Dead Animals in Every New Mercedes CLS
What's the difference? You would sit on your skinned neighbor in your new car, wouldn't you? After all, skin is skin ... Right?
From Care2
By Mac McDaniel
The auto industry is buzzing about the new 2012 Mercedes CLS. Among its many luxurious features is a leather interior that Mercedes boasts requires four animals to create.
I don’t know about you, but to me four dead animals means a quality product! With that kind of marketing you can bet that I will be the first in line at the Mercedes dealership trying to get financed for a new CLS!
In an era when what were once fringe beliefs like veganism and animal rights are becoming more and more mainstream, when even omnivores are speaking out against fur and whaling, it demonstrates how completely out of touch a company can become when they market exclusively to the extremely wealthy.
There is a correlation between wealth and the exploitation of animals, between luxury and one’s inclination toward kindness.
There is of course a long cultural tradition of animals being used as symbols of prestige and wealth; the best example is wearing fur, which is still viewed as a sign of wealth. While factory-farming and subsidies have created an artificially low price for meat making it affordable by almost anyone, there was a time in recent human history when eating meat was exclusively reserved for the rich.
This helps to explain a cultural obsession with “luxurifying” brands and products by the inclusion of dead animals. Celebrities still flaunt their furs, upscale breweries package their beer bottles inside taxidermied squirrels, and Mercedes boldly quantifies the dead animals required to produce the interior of its new luxury car.
Luxury is defined almost entirely by wastefulness. By wasting, one can demonstrate a lack of concern for frugality, cost, or consequence. This is why meat is a luxury item no matter how cheaply it can be produced. The water, food, time, and land required to produce meat is astronomically higher than that required to produce vegetables, fruits or grains.
When we as a society begin to lose some of our concern with opulence and indulgence we can begin to see the irreversible damage we’re doing not just to ourselves, but to the animals and the planet. When we start to see animals and the planet as living entities and not exploitable commodities we will stop treating them as status symbols to kill, eat, wear, and line our cars.
Tell Mercedes Benz how you feel HERE.
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Our Compass 
Thankfully I cannot afford a new car; seems most (even minivans!) have leather seats. I would NEVER purchase a car with leather — even a used one! (I ride without hide, as the bumper sticker says). JetBlue Airlines boasts of leather seats throughout their planes!
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“Ride Without Hide” : excellent! And I fail to understand the appeal, it’s flesh, how is it something about which to boast?
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Even the rich can move with the times. The very idea that leather seats in a luxury car or a fur coat denote opulence are subject to an evolution (or revolution) of man-made societies. We keep doing what we do, and compassion will rule the day – she said optimistically….
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Great article. Comment made. (Love that – “ride without hide”!)
“My how the world is changing. Only a few years ago I insisted on leather seats. Now I can’t sit on them without compassion for the awful life and death the animal who provided it was forced to live. I am choosing a car this week in fact, but it will have micro-fiber cloth seats and faux leather trim. Far too many millions of animals are now mis-managed and mistreated, and we just can’t keep ignoring it, especially in the name of fashion.
Thank you for listening.”
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WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT ANIMALS DO DIE FROM BEING OLD ALSO NATURAL CAUSES AND KILLED FOR BEING OVER POPULATED AND MOST HUMANS WEAR LEATHER SHOES AND CARRY LEATHER HANDBAGS. I AM AN ANIMAL LOVER AND YOU WILL NOT STOP ALL HUMAN GAIN FROM OUR BELOVED ANIMAL FRIENDS AS MUCH AS WE WANT TO AND TRY
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IF OUR MAJESTY THE QUEEN CAN PERSUADE THE BEEFEATERS AT THE TOWER OF LONDON TO WEAR FAKE FUR BEAR SKIN HATS THEN CAR MANUFACTURES SHOULD MOVE WITH THE TIMES AND RESPECT OUR BELOVED ANIMAL FRIENDS FEEL PAIN AND EMOTIONS WHEN BEEN TORTURED AND SLAUGHTERED FOR THEIR PRECIOUS SKINS AND FURS
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