Bating (leather)

Bating is a technical term used in the tanning industry to denote leather that has been treated with hen or pigeon manure, similar to puering (see puer) where the leather has been treated with dog excrement, and which treatment, in both cases, was performed on the raw hide prior to tanning in order to render the skins, and the subsequent leather, soft and supple.^[1] Today, both practices are obsolete and have been replaced in the tanneries with other natural proteolytic enzymes.