On the busiest shopping day of the year, PETA and grassroots animal advocates come together for “Free the Animals” Friday—a global initiative calling for shoppers to show compassion for animals.

While retailers push deals, our supporters take to the streets, shopping centers, and social media to expose the cruelty behind animal skins and inspire shoppers to choose stylish, eco-friendly vegan materials instead. PETA’s explosive campaigns have already pushed fur out of fashion—now, it’s time for animal-based leather to follow.

Get inspired! See how PETA and our supporters have taken over “Free the Animals” Friday with head-turning demonstrations and other bold actions. Then, find out how YOU can join.

On Black Friday 2024, PETA made Coach stores across the country deal with a series of vibrant, dramatic demonstrations that called out the company for selling deadly animal skins. Armed with sirens, “bloody skinned cow heads,” “bloody” bags that read, “Coach: Leather Kills,” and more, PETA supporters and other animal advocates sent a message to the retailer: No bargain can wash the blood off Coach’s hands.

Our head-turning protests called attention to the suffering of more than a billion cows and other animals slaughtered every year by the global leather industry. A PETA exposé of the world’s largest leather processor, which has been linked to Coach, showed that workers brand calves on the face, beat cows and bulls, and shock them with electric prods.

Cows are social, curious animals who share close bonds with their families, remember past experiences, and grieve when they lose a loved one. Factory farms deny these sensitive animals everything that’s natural and important to them: the chance to play, bask in the sun, form complex social groups, and even breathe fresh air. At slaughterhouses, they suffer terrifying deaths.

Think animal skins are just a by-product of meat? Think again. Animal skins are one of the most economically important coproducts of the meat industry, which means buying animal-based leather directly fuels factory farming and slaughter.

The animal skins industry also wreaks havoc on the environment, contributing to land devastation, deforestation, pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Plus, the toxic waste from tanneries—where animal skins are processed into leather—has run off into local water sources and poisoned entire ecosystems, harming humans in the process.

Vegan leather, on the other hand, is better for us, our fellow animals, and the planet. It can be made from innovative and sustainable materials such as pineapple leaves, cork, apple peels, other fruit waste, and recycled plastic.

Together, we can strike a deal with the fashion industry: our business in exchange for its kindness. “Free the Animals” Friday is the perfect time to raise our voices for animals and show holiday shoppers everywhere how much good they can do by making one simple choice—shopping vegan.