Do you feel guilty when you accidentally eat/use something made from animal?

My favorite pair of snadals is made from leather, (I got them in Jamaica,) and I feel bad. Other vegans I know do not have anything to do with ANYTHING that comes from animals. I feel extremely guilty. Do other vegans/veg's feel bad when they accidentally use/eat a animal product? What do you do atferwards?

 

most of the time it depends on what i used/ate from an animal...i still space out & eat dairy ice cream on the occasion & feel guilty. but there isnt really anything i can do about it now & just try to make myself more aware of the non veg* food in the house...if you feel massive guilt for your leather sandals, give them away to someone who needs a pair of shoes. most of the leather that i own i bought before i went veg*an & if i threw it away now it would just be wasting another life...

 

definitely true, thanks for advice

 

yeah, whenever something sneaks its way past my defences I feel bad. It happens though, and we should just move on.

 

A few days ago I forgot and ate a piece of sushi.
I fel so bad about that. I deserve punishment.

 

I do feel bad at the time, but then just sort of shrug and think oh well cest le vie, can't undo it so just learn and move on.

TTFN

Sage

 

Well, I have 2 pairs of boots made out of leather, and even though I love them, I do feel guilty about buying them - not wearing them though, because it's not gonna change anything, is it? But if I feel guilty for buying them, I don't think about it all the time... I mean, we shouldn't stop ourselves from wearing clothes/shoes we really like because they're made out of some animal's skin... its really horrible it's true, and I'm against it, but if you please yourself by getting it, then get it... It's like how some people really love animals but can't stop eating meat because they just like it too much... some people are not ready for sacrifices!

As far as food, well I usually feel like throwing up when I find out that I ate pasta that was cooked with chiken bouillon, or something like that - usually when I eat at someone else's house. With eating it's different for me, not only it makes me guilty, but it also disgusts me - cause I'm not a veggie only for animal rights and non-violence, also because the thought of eating a dead body makes me sick...

 

i was in a hall of residence last year... they served us 'vegetarian' spring rolls one night...nothing in 'em but beef mince. Even though i didn't eat it, it was still gross. Soooo very gross in fact. I didn't like spring rolls much before that, but now I actually couldn't eat one, even if I knew it was vegetables. I know you can't really help these things, but it's just icky.

 

yeah i do feel sorta guilty, but i try not to, cause it's a dumb waste of energy. you can't change what you already did, and you aren't always going to be perfect, right? i try to give myself credit for trying.

like someone already said, if you already bought the shoes, to throw them away would be a waste. i love my doc martins that i've had forever, and i'm not going to toss them now. when i buy new things, i try to avoid leather, but sometimes, i can't find an acceptable substitute.

that's life, you do what you can.

on the other hand, someone said they were physically repulsed by the idea of eating a corpse, and i agree with that one. more than anything, i feel like barfing if i find out someone "sneaked" some meat or meat products into my food. even if i wasn't an animal lover, i'm not sure that i could resign myself to eating dead bodies.

 

I don't know I figure everyone can make mistakes once, just learn from them...for example I found out my beloved kraft dinner had rennet in it the other week...and I felt really bad for eating it for so long, so i found mac and cheese without Rennet...Or leather stuff...I figure use what you have so you don't waste it, but buy cruelty free next time...

P.S. The other day my mom accidently switched my soy patti for her cow one...I'm always afraid of that happening...I took one bite spit it out and almost puked...This has no relevance...just thought I'd share...

 

i do, sometimes. right now, i don't have a job and therefore don't make money of my own. my mum buys mostly fruits and veg, but sometimes i'll have to make small exceptions (like in bread) just to be able to have something to eat for that day. i feel guilty, but i can't just go starving. once i have money it'll be different, though.

oh, and don't have my head for this, but i actually accepted a pair of leather shoes yesterday. i know i shouldn't have, but i bring you back to the point of me not having any money. my mum offered to buy me a pair, because my last ones were almost pooched. so, i said yes. i feel kind of guilty, but my last pair were covered in holes! (and were leather anyway, from when i wasn't vegan yet.)

they might not be leather, anyway. they might be pleather, since they were just a cheap pair of shoes. plus, they didn't say "authentic leather" anywhere on them, so i don't think they were.

 

I feel guilty when I use something made from animal, regardless if it's accidental (or unfortunately) not accidental. Actually, my older sister once bought a leather jacket, which I haven't worn in I don't know how long.

 

Actually no. I try to limit the harm I inflict on the world around me but I refuse to delude myself into thinking I can eliminate it altogether. We kill, most of us do anyway, from keeping the pests out of our home to the insects and other critters that run out in front of our vehicles.

Also whlile I keep my use of leather to minimum, I have yet to find sandles worth a nickle made with anything else.

 

Not really: "Criminal" intent isn't present but then again I don't really object to people wating meat when there is no meat around. If some guys were stranded in the middle of the ocean I would forgive them for eating each other.

 

What the fuck?? You really should have complained. Our cafeteria was serving steak dinner one time and they handed out beans that you would trade in for a piece of steak. I told the guy it didn't matter since I'm a vegetarian and he said "oh don't worry we have chicken!"

 

As long as you're not wasteful. I try to limit myself from animal products, but sadly considering we are omnivores, I consider the use of some animal products acceptable. If a cow is going to die to make a hamburger, don't waste the leather. At least make shoes. Like I said previously, its better to not be wasteful.

 

lol, so you're the gal who snagged my old name. hmmm

 

"'a cow is going to die to make a hamburger, don't waste the leather."

They make money from the leather, its not like the leather is jsut a by product, that jsut happens to be there cause the cow is already dead. Leather makes money, just like hamburger meat does.

 

Leather isn't really much of a by product. If everyone stopped eating meat for whatever reason, the leather industry could still be profitable. That's my reasoning anyways.

 

I don't feel guilty. I just try to avoid it in the future. For instance, I often eat at a local pizzaria, where I generally get a spinach artichoke calzone with no cheese. I'm an ethical Vegan, but it turns out that I am also quite allergic to dairy. So I ask the guy to please make sure they don't sprinkle shredded parm all over the pizza sauce that comes on the side, because I am very allergic. He comes back a few minutes later and says, "Did you know the pizza sauce has cheese in it (4 cups in 15 gallons or something like that)?" My thought is, "WTF do they put cheese in the pizza sauce?" But I just thanked the guy profusely for telling me, and asked that they put marinara on the side instead (which turned out to be better anyway). It would have never occured to me that there might be cheese in pizza sauce, so I certainly don't feel guilty for having eaten it. But I won't be eating it again, now that I know.


As far as leather is concerned, I actually have a leather jacket that I purchased one year before going Vegan. Ethically, I don't see any problem with continuing to wear it, since it was purchased before I went Veg, and it would be wasteful to just throw it out. However, I'm a little, okay a lot, in-your-face about the fur issue, and I couldn't justify wearing the skin of one dead animal when telling someone else how evil it is to purchase and wear the skin of another animal. So it hung in the garage all winter. This fall, I plan to deliver it directly to a homeless shelter. I no longer own leather shoes either. I donated all of them to charity for the same reason. I don't feel guilty for having owned them, since I didn't know any better. But I don't purchase them now.