To ask that people consider giving up leather?

[Breadandwine]

I’ve been a vegan for 13 years. My concerns are animal welfare and global warming, plus I feel it's good for my health.

With regard to animal welfare, I have issues with every aspect of animal husbandry - but I have to be honest, until now, I haven’t given much thought to leather. I avoid it, certainly - it took several years of delicate negotiations before I persuaded my wife to accept a faux leather suite instead of the leather one she wanted - but I’ve always thought leather to be a by-product of the dairy industry.

Not so. An article by Lucy Siegle in this morning’s Observer Magazine brought me up short.

Leather production seems to be worse than other forms of animal cruelty in that humans are suffering too:

"Finally the animals are skinned (in front of each other) in the back streets of Dhaka. The skins are processed in makeshift tanneries with workers, including children, knee deep in toxic chemicals."

Yanbu. I think it's good that you've raised this OP. I have leather shoes and boots but you've made me think twice about our throw away culture.

I'm probably a hypocrite but I've always wondered why sheepskin is so popular for babies - so a baby sheep is killed for a baby human to have a cosy blanket I'm sure there are loads of better examples, but if we all consumed less and tried to be more ethical the world would be a better place?!

Hear hear PercyPig2!

I now know why sheepskin is so popular for babies. I would never have believed it but it's amazing - a friend has a few months' old baby, who is having trouble with the Aussie summer heat, and sweats loads. Anyway, she bought a sheepskin pram liner and it has done wonders - it wicks away all the sweat and dampness, and keeps the baby cool and dry.

I don't think the sheepskin is baby lamb though.

Sheepskin is popular for babies because it is amazing. Great insulation, lovely and soft, and interesting to read that its good for using in hot places too thumb

Sheepskin isn't baby lamb. The wool on them is too long.

So you're claiming that you dont want us to give up leather, OP?

Why start this thread, then?

A bit of intellectual honesty (or honesty of any kind, really) would be good at this point.

I don't get your confusion, Cote. Of course OP is hoping that at least some people will give up/reduce leather in response to the article he linked. He's not being 'intellectually dishonest' by saying he's not telling you to give up - he's acknowledging your personal choice.

Presumably he's also not campaigning for mass disposal of all existing leather. I assume that if/when he replaces his car, he'll look for one without leather interiors.

My handbag is leather. I've also had it years and will use it til it's pretty much on its last knees (may charity shop it at some point, when it's still useable but no longer work appropriate). And when I do, I will have a look at a more ethical replacement. Quite likely to be more ethical leather if possible - as others have said, there are major environmental issues with plastics and I do need it to be more waterproof than most plant fibres I can think of. I'll look into this at the time; I'm not angry to be educated, and I'm confident enough in my choices to not feel 'told off' by the sharing of info which this thread demonstrates lots of people actually didn't know.

I don't see the issue with asking people to consider it.

I do agree with the OP, in a way. I have considered it. I will still wear leather.

I have considered it before and made my decision. Like I made the decision to eat as much local produce as possible. I made the decision to turn half my garden into an allotment so that a lot of our food is home grown. We only eat things that are in season. Where possible. It can't be avoided completely like when dd had to use Quinoa for Food tech at school.

I know I have less impact on the planet than a lot of my vegan friends who eat food flown from all over the world.

I don't like leather sofas. I would never buy one. But if I had to I would choose real leather over fake leather. Fake leather isn't good for the planet and fake leather sofas don't last as long. So imo, worse for the planet.

I would rather have a leather jacket that lasts years, instead of a load of cheap non leather ones in the same time period.

I think we should all think about these things a bit more and make the decision that is best for us or that we feel is the better option.

You won't get it, Nell, if you don't read posts properly. I said he is hoping we will give up leather. He wants us to give up leather. Obviously, since he is asking us to consider giving it up.

But he says "No", he didn't hope for us to give up leather when he started this thread.

Weird.

Cote well I'm sure the op would very much like for us to give up leather, but that was not the expressly stated purpose of the thread.

You always gravitate to threads which suggest people might want to consider limiting their intake in some way, Cote, and you always seem to be anti restriction. Why is that?

Of course, it is the purpose of this thread.

I have no problem with people not eating meat or whatever. To each their own. I don't eat everything under the sun, either.

I do have a problem with sanctimonious and often badly-informed attempts to convert people to one's own way of life, though. Since you are such a stalker an expert on where I post, you must have noticed that, too.

I gravitate to vegan-related posts and noticed that you often turn up too. Not stalkery, just observant! It feels slightly odd to me that such a resolute non-vegan turns up so often; hence the question.

I don't see the issue with asking people either, it's not hurting anyone.

I haven't read the whole FT but I bet there has been lots of stupid lentil comments and jokes. I am uncomfortable with some aspects of meat rearing and we have third generation farmers in the family. I have seen things that I don't like and although I am not a vegan, I hate the way that people get jumped on, called names and probably (haven't checked on this thread) get called sanctimonious.

Turn your gaze to a mere 3 posts above your own, peaceandlove it's like you've read these threads before!!

It is upsetting. This weekend one of our less vegan-friendly friends told me that if you consume anything while living in a 1st world country then you're probably trampling on someone's rights (be it human or animal), so you might as well just not bother and eat everything. While he was sadly right in terms of rights abuses, I completely disagreed with the lazy, self-serving, latter part of that statement. If you can't completely solve the problem in one go then you shouldn't bother to even try and ameliorate it? What a fucking message.

It's ok, Homer said it first

Of course, it is the purpose of this thread

Have you read the title?

I notice posters. Some posters jump out at me and I recognise them from other posts. It happens on forums. It's not stalking

I was on a thread the other day about Happy Eggs not being very happy and a few posters were talking about the best place to buy proper free range eggs, some people said that they didn't think the standards were that high for free range so would continue to buy battery. I was like WTF? as my teens say.

I can just imagine if Emmeline Pankhurst had been all: "The vote is not good enough! I demand a status quo in society where woman are NOT tacitly blamed for wearing a skirt if they are sexually assaulted! If we can't get that AND job equality AND the vote then there's just no fucking point bothering, really."

It's not a nice mental image - I'm quite glad she bothered. Small steps add up, and if my small steps can help to improve animal rights/welfare then I'm very happy with that.

That's really sad contess it's just their way of justifying their laziness and making peace with themselves.

As for batteyr eggs peace I thought all battery farms have disappeared from the uk and have been replaced with crowded barn eggs. Can you still get battery eggs?

Yes, still eggs from caged birds, certain supermarkets won't sell them, like waitrose.
There is a campaign by a 14 yo girl at the moment to stop Tesco selling them.

Albeit slightly bigger cages afer the new welfare legislation. Eggs imported from Europe even worse.

m.facebook.com/tesco/posts/534526183273184

thirtynineweeks I don't have carpets because I hate hoovers. I detest the noise. My mother used to hoover day and night before she was sectioned each time. I suppose it evokes too many bad memories. I have, much to my dhs distress moved into houses and immediately ripped out all the carpets. He has promised to do the hoovering so I can go out and not hear the thing but he never does so I rip the stuff out. Much prefer wooden floors or floorboards as it is quicker to sweep up and a quick mop over means it feels a lot cleaner.

Also just to clarify I only own one jacket that I use for when I go skiing it is kept in the boot of the car and hasn't been worn since I last went skiing.
I find a cardy is quite enough.
My point is you don't need a lot of stuff that people tend to think they cannot live without.