“They soak the skins in chicken shit,” Chris whispered. “The nitrogen in the feces softens the leather.” “Great,” she said. “Dog shit, too.” “Great.” Chris looked back and saw more vats, and hides hanging on the racks. Here and there, stinking piles of cheesy yellow material lay heaped on the ground—fat scraped from the inside of the skins. Kate said, “My eyes burn.” Chris pointed to the white crust on the vats around them. These were lime vats, a harsh alkali solution that removed all the hair and remaining flesh after the skins were scraped. And it was the lime fumes that burned their eyes.
