Leather from charity shops...

Okay guys, here's the score.

I'm an ovo-lactic veggie, and I never ever buy leather shoes or anything new that's made out of leather. I do, however, occassionally buy leather from charity shops.

Yesterday I bought a great afghan coat that I love, from a charity shop in town. It's made from pigskin and lamb's fur.

My dad saw me in it today and immediately protested "I thought you were against the wearing of leather!"

I tried to explain that, in my view, there's a difference between wearing leather that is bought new and wearing second-hand leather from a charity shop. In my opinion:

a) The animal is already dead, and refusing to wear it won't bring the animal back to life.

b) Purchasing leather from a charity shop does not support the leather industry in any way (therefore does not support the further slaughtering of animals) but instead supports the charity from which the coat was purchased.

So, although my dad didn't see it, I believe that I have fair moral justification for wearing my new coat.

What do you guys think? Is my reasoning sound, does it make sense to you?

 

i agree with you!!!!!
i think that's 'good leather'.

 

But someone might buy a new one now because that one is gone because you bought it, thus creating more demand for animals to be killed!

 

But then surely that would be the moral choice of the hyperthetical person who buys the new coat, and not my own moral decision at all.

 

I tend to think about it like this ...

It is terrible to kill an animal to make a product.
It is even worse to kill an animal to make a product, and then not ensure that the product is used until it can be used no more (waste the product for which the animal was originally killed.
Thus, you are trying to respect the animal as much as you can by making sure those leather products get used, so that more leather products don't have to be brought into the world, resulting in less animal slaughter.

The problem is, you don't buy leather products to begin with, so ensuring that the products get used (by using them yourself) does not stop more animals from being slaughtered.

The best solution is, try to convince other people to buy second-hand leather products and use them until they are too old to be used anymore.
That way they don't have to buy new leather products.

And anywhere in here you can substitute "leather" or "leather products" for "animal products."

 

i see no problem myself, and would hold nothing against you, however i could not wear leather myself, because its reminds me of the animal that was taken for it, and i do not want to wdvertise it to others, say somebody sees me in a leather coat and decides i look goood in it and wants a leather coat
peacex

 

I also own second hand leather and feel the same way. However, it is still a dead animal that youre covering up with, second hand or no. And youre still sending the message to lots of people, that leather is okay. Its funny how people think leaher is fine but fur is not.

I have an absolutely lovely winter coat which is red leather, circa 1966 or so, bought it from a charity shop. I havent worn it since becoming veggie, mostly because my boyfriend refuses to touch me in it... fair nuff

 

Leather is leather, fur is fur....no matter how you explain it.

I cannot wear leather, period, because it's an animals SKIN! I think it's pretty sad that people wear it without a second thought.

It also shows people that it's OK to wear leather...because they just see it as a piece of leather... not a second hand jacket. Wearing animal skin is completely unjustifable...sorry. (Well, unless you're an indigenous person that killed the animal and uses every piece of the animal to live...)

 

I don't get how some people think it's not ok to eat dead animals, but it's ok to wear dead animals.

replace the word "wear" with "eat"... what's the difference???

If you're doing it for the animals then wearing the skin that they used to live and breathe in, to me, seems completely hypocritical.

 

Well personally, I agree with you.

I've worn the same leather jacket for the past 14 years. My sister wore it for several years before I got it. I don't buy new leather, but I don't want to get rid of it now either... I feel like I'd be adding insult to injury, to get rid of the jacket at this point. The cow is already dead & I can't do anything about that. I didn't buy the jacket, but I'm not about to let it go to waste now that the damage has already been done.
love,
mom

 

I would not wear leather or fur even if it was second hand. It grosses me out to even think of wearing a dead animals skin. In the back of my mind it makes me think of Ed Gein...

 

'just' requires one animal!! that is an animal man! if you are a vegetarian because you think it is cruel to kill an animal than how how we say 'oh its okay for clothing'. there are other ways we can clothe ourselves also. and the breeding of cows is an ecological disaster, its part of the problem.

 

And I thought of something else too...

Wearing a second hand leather jacket is no different than getting meat out of a dumpster and saying it's OK to eat it because you aren't DIRECTLY supporting the slaughtering of innocent animals.

And not only that...

Some of you say that the animal is already dead, so why not wear it? Well, if there is a piece of meat sitting there...you might as well eat it, right? Cuz it's already dead.

I don't see the logic here, people.

 

Yeah, that's right.

Consider these two situations:

Kill an animal for food.
Kill an animal for food, and waste the food.

Which is worse?

If an animal is going to be killed, or has already been killed, why should you waste?

That being said ... I don't eat meat even if it is scraps or thrown away, simply because meat is unhealthy and I have to look out for my health.

It's a practical logic, thinking in terms of paying no mind to spirituality and only to the material world. Which is why it is logical, and yet, is something that you and I can still consider out of line.

I wouldn't judge negatively someone who ate meat out of a dumpster so that he doesn't have to support corporations and so the meat isn't wasted. I'd worry about their health, but I wouldn't judge them negatively.

 

Would people feel the same if it was second-hand fur? Must admit I'm not really sure where I stand on the leather issue, but know that I would never wear second-hand fur, and so now I marvel at my own hypocrisy (sp?)

 

personally, i see leather and fur as being a no-no. they are both animals, and advertising the death of animals, so me personally would never wear either. jsut my stance though
peacex

 

people are more strongly opposed to fur than leather because wealthy women are easier to harass than motorcycle gangs. there you go. bumper-sticker politics for us all to ponder.

that being said, i have a second-hand leather jacket i bought at the goodwill and wear often. and i admit unabashedly i enjoy wearing it for purely hedonistic reasons. i feel the same way about waste, although, like hikky z, i won't eat meat scraps, for my health (and a number of other reasons, like, meat is just icky!)

 

The problem with wearing second hand leather is that, although you did not directly support the leather industry because you did not purchase the item retail, you still imply that it is acceptable to purchase and wear leather by merely walking around in public in it. The reality is that you have the opportunity to speak with a tiny percentage of the people who see you every day. So for every person to whom you can explain that you purchased the leather item second hand, there are 100 or 1,000 people who have no idea how you came by the item but see you wearing it.

Cowboy Blue, it is a myth that leather is more eco-friendly than polyester, cotton or hemp. You have to cut down more trees to graze cattle and feed them corn and soy than to grow cotton or hemp. And the chemicals used to tan leather are at least as environmentally toxic as is the production of artificial fibers. Plus, intensive animal farming is one contributing factor to global warming, and factory farming also causes water contamination. A lot of beef is now produced in Central and South America and clearing land to graze the cattle is a huge contributor to deforestation of the rain forests. Beyond any cruelty issues, the meat industry and its highly profitable leather "by-product" sister industry is devistating to the environment.

 

Excellent points, mrsshf.

 

I'm with Hikaru Zero on this one, there is certainly a practical logic in eating some meat that is otherwise simply going to be wasted.

In fact, I recently ate some discarded meat myself...not that I'd do it as a rule, I was just very drunk and very hungry. But I don't feel so bad about it, really. Sorry if I've disgusted everyone.

I think to a large extent, any thoughts on this point will be heavily influenced by your reasons for being a vegetarian.

My reasons for being a veggie are to reduce the amount of suffering and killing of sentient creatures (amongst other things, such as health and environmental concerns) but not out of any concern for an animal which has already been killed by someone else.

I personally tend to think that such concepts of respect for creatures now dead is an illusive invention of the human mind, anyhow. Ultimately, everything that lives feeds to some degree upon the death of what has gone before.

Whether people agree with me or not, I hope that this made some level of sense.