Animal-related goods

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

I've turned vegan and feel great about it already! However, I do have a few

problems:

 

What do I do with animal-related goods that I purchased before (e.g.

leather, down quilts)? Personally, I think it would be too wasteful to just

dump these things out. I've always felt that it is the moment of purchase

which marks the influence we have on the market - since I bought these items

before, throwing them out now would be a mere ritual. However, then I start

feeling a bit contradictory...I'm a vegan who wears leather Dr. Martens and

sleeps cuddled in a down quilt at night?

 

I can certainly donate these items to those who are in need of such goods.

But by doing so, am I only further spreading the use of animal-related

products?

 

And one more thing, any good sites for vegan recipes?

 

Honor

 

_______________

Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

[Guest guest]

> animal related goods

 

I'd still use them until they die or fall to pieces without any

conscience at all. like fraggle i still have some 20 year old biker boots

and jacket that get dug out from time to time and a Swedish army belt

that probably came out of WWII ... it is a kind of ethnic thing for [ in

my case ex- ] bikers.

 

i never had a problem with it for bikers or workmen and so on where at

least it was re-cycling a beast usefully and it had some valid practical

worthwhile process. wankers wearing leather for the sake of vanity,

fashion or perversion always got me down even when i ate meat. it has

taken a long time for them to come up with useful alternatives for such

purposes.

 

you may get a few goadings from meat eaters [ ... the answer is " yes but

I am not going to eat my shoes " ] so ignore them.

 

i really don't have problems with recycled or second hand animal products

and prefer them to vegan plastic replacements from an environmental point

of view.

 

funnily enough i am not so keen on the smell of leather any more though.

 

it is possible to get ethical leathers from India [ Brahmin leather ]

taken from holy cows that died naturally - again that seems like " fair

use " and would not mind my own hide being recycled in the same manner.

there is also one company called Aero that makes biker and workmen's

jackets and so on out of serious thick horse hide that comes from horses

in America that have been put out to pasture and allowed to die

naturally. they would last a life time. copies of old 40s Sear's

Catalogue models.

 

may be we have a debate over what is most vegan here ... does the animal

come first or the environment ... should we make best use of what it

around or support new ventures ... etc

 

john