Hi,
Re the leather - that's actually the way a lot of vegans live. I can honestly say that I do not (knowingly) posses or consume any animal products whatsoever with one exception only - I *do* travel on PT and in cars that contain animal products in their tyres, as this is completely unavoidable (all tyres available in Australia contain animal ingredients). This includes leather, wool, fur, foods containing gelatine, cosmetics containing animal ingredients etc. Shoes used to be difficult, but since Vegan Wares opened up, it's been really easy ( http://www.veganwares.com/ ). I simply don't see a difference between leather and fur - most women would never consider wearing or buying fur, but are quite happy to wear leather. Strange logic to me.
Surprisingly, it's not as hard as you might think to be vegan. There are so many cruelty-free options available these days that its just a matter of informing yourself then making the appropriate choice. I have a lot of non-vegan friends who also choose to purchase cruelty-free products as a matter of course, which is great. Of course, a lot of products are advertised as 'cruelty-free' yet contain animal ingredients, which I can't understand - I mean, how it can be considered cruelty-free to not test a product on an animal but to condone the animal's slaughter to make some gunk for women to put on their faces or whatever is beyond me. The 'Body Shop' is probably the worst offender - nearly all of their products contain large amounts of animal ingredients, yet everywhere you look you see 'curelty free' written. Hmmm...
Re: the vegies thing. As vegetables do not have central nervous systems, we have no evidence whatsoever that they feel pain. However, the standard ethics of veganism generally state that we should not be wasteful and that we should respect all life, so most vegans generally try to buy recycled furniture etc., and not waste plant foods or kill plant life unnecessarily.
It's just the way I live, and have lived for about half a decade now (I became vegetarian in the early 90s, then vegan in 1998). In fact, people are surprised when I tell them I'm vegan - I think they expect me to live in a mud hut and wear 'hippy' clothes (well, some of my clothes are 'hippy' but most are 'normal'! *lol*). And I'll be happily raising my son as a vegan, and teaching him the importance of respecting and loving not only other people, but other forms of life as well.
Leanne XXX (due October 27 with a vegan baby boy!)
Judy Chapman wrote:
I guess if we took this 'pro all life' argument to the extreme
then we would not have leather in our lounges, cars, shoes.
There is a school of thought out there that plants scream when
cut so I guess we don't cut any, don't rip veges off the
tree/vine, don't fell trees etc!!!
Cheers
Judy
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