Shoes

I was at Target, and I stopped by the shoe section to check out what cheap kicks were available. I picked up a pair of loafers. The tag seemed to brag that they were 100% leather. Not for me. I was sure the running shoes would be synthetic. Nope. Leather uppers. It's not going to be difficult to purchase animal-free shoes from now on, but I was just struck that every single pair on the shelf was made with leather. According to my calculations, that's like, a kajillion shoes made of leather worldwide. The same cows I won't eat are being made into shoes. Damn.

Standing there in Target, alone in the shoe aisle, I thought about the scene at the end of Fast Food Nation where the cows are processed and there hides are peeled of their bodies by a machine that looks like a giant rotisserie. That clip has always disturbed me since I saw it a couple years ago. I remember I stopped eating red meat after that movie, but slowly ate some here and there after a few months. One image never left me that disturbed me to the core from that movie. It wasn't bloody or gory. It didn't involve torcher or killing or piles of shit. It was a shot of a cow standing in a shiny, tiny, metal room. It was so unnatural. Here was a large, majestic animal, contrasting the flat metal background. It just wasn't right. I'm sure that image has always been in the back of my mind. I still have flashes of it when I least suspect it. Like, when I'm in the shoe aisle at Target.