To not understand why fur and veal are so much worse than leather and beef?

[Coconuthusk]

This is a genuine question.
This isn't about whether we should all be vegan, it is a question for those who eat meat. Please be respectful. X
I genuingely don't understand why leather is acceptable and fur generally isn't. Animals bred abroad for leather can have pretty awful lives too.
Similarly, fois gras is pretty miserable for geese, eggs can cause real misery (not so much in the UK now thankfully), and obtaining feathers can be horrific so why is veal considered so much worse by some?
For the record, I eat meat and wear leather although I do understand why people choose to be vegetarian and vegan.

I was actually surprised to find how strongly I feel about fur - I was in NYC and it was freezing, so I went into Bloomingdales to buy some earmuffs. I just assumed they were fake, but at the last minute asked at the till.

The clerk told me they were rabbit. I was genuinely repelled and horrified, and asked her to help me find a faux fur pair instead. I hadn't realised my feelings about it ran so deeply until then (although I have been vegetarian for 30 years, so perhaps much more inclined to feel that way!)

Egg industry - male chicks discarded and gassed when hatched as they (obviously) can't lay eggs and egg laying breeds are no good for meat. Doesn't matter if they are organic, free range whatever - male chicks are disposed of on hatching.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/hatched-discarded-gassed-what-happens-to-male-chicks-in-the-uk-10088509.html

I think we live sheltered lives. Those chickens on the shelves in the supermarket. The ones we roast in the oven: 68 days old. Not even 10 weeks.

I don't have a problem with meat eating, I really don't. Lamb, duck, beef, veal, venison, pork, chicken, Turkey... All of it. Fine. I won't eat foie gras, no matter how delicious it supposedly is, despite the fact that I adore liver, because shoving a tube down a goose or a duck's throat and force feeding it is not on my list of acceptable practices to obtain tasty food. I am also choosy about where my meat comes from, because I don't want to pay money for badly treated animals.

I'm also really honest with my children about what they put in their mouths, and always have been. If they ask what's for dinner, I say "Roast pork, that's pig." or "We're having Lamb today - baby sheep". They've always known what it is that we're doing. If they are fussy about eating their meat, I say to them "an animal died so you could have that dinner. Either eat it, or don't eat it, but stop making a fuss about it, because that cow/pig/fish/lamb died so we could eat it." Now that they are getting a bit older (12, 10, 8) I'm starting to talk to DD3, who has never been a 'meaty' person, about whether she thinks she would like to be vegetarian. She looks like she might just opt out largely from meat and enjoy roast dinners!

I ate so much veal on holiday in Italy once, it's more common than pork out there. Best thing ever was veal cooked into bread, with a really rich dipping sauce. Cor!

Rose veal is a more ethical way to enjoy veal - it's made from male calves which would otherwise be culled, and they're not kept in the dark hence the healthy pink colour of the meat.

We buy veal and foie gras. I’ve been to a foie gras farm and seen the process first hand so I’m by no means a hypocrite.

Haven't read the whole thread but didn't Jamie Oliver try to dispel myths about veal in one of his Jamie and Jimmy Friday night series? The argument was that male calves just get slaughtered so it would be less wasteful to rear them for meat.

halfwitpicker

British or NZ lamb is about as high-welfare as meat gets. The lambs are born in barns under the farmers’s care, with veterinary treatment available if required. They are then suckled by the ewe until natural weaning. They live in a field withered they can interact naturally with other lambs. They have a very good quality of life indeed until it’s time to go to market.

what's the issue with feathers?

Birds plucked alive.

Silkpyajamas so you’re ok with the fur from mink raised on your Greek fur farm because you say they died an ok death? Was their life an ok life then? Caged 24/7, an animal that is territorial and likes to move about and swim. How nice. All so you can wear it’s skin.

@Coconuthusk the removal of feathers can be a painful experience for the birds and at times barbaric. I found that out whilst boycotting Canadian Goose they use fur from coyotes.