Leather:
Most of you know where leather comes from … cow skin. The cows that are skinned are the same ones that are also sent to slaughter. A lot of the leather has been made in developing countries that have little or no humane laws to protect animals used for food. The cows live miserable lives and are eventually killed before their time.
Alternatives: PLEATHER! Check out the blog entry on vegan shoes for examples. Also, there are many other materials things like shoes, bags, jackets … etc can be made out of.
Fur:
Fur too is an obvious. It comes from furry little critters who have been skinned for their warm fur. Often times they are beaten to death to avoid damaging their “pelts”. In fur farms they are treated similarly to cows, chickens and pigs in factory farms. Some times even DOGS AND CATS are used in fur. It is not always required that fur products list what animal are used in the fur product and it takes about 24 cats per cat coat and up to 15 in dog coats ( check out: http://www.voice4dogs.org/howfurisused.htm ). It’s very disturbingand I don’t recommend it for week stomachs, but you can visit the following sites for info and pictures of what goes on: http://www.hsus.org/furfree/cruel_reality/ – http://fur.elehost.com/– (note the following is a PETA site, and I’m not certain of their methods or accuracy, but it’s hard to deny the footage … note, I am unsure the organization is reliable and do not currently support them … the fur industry is a real problem and Peta is not the ONLY source of this info. I listed other sources so that you could cross check … etc. sometimes they get things right.) http://www.peta.org/feat-fatalfashion.asp.
Silk:
Silk, as not everyone knows, comes from the mass boiling of Silk worms that have entered the cocoon stage. For more info you can check out http://www.ivu.org/news/3-98/silk.html , http://www.silkpaintinggallery.com/silk.htm or http://www.kumikookoon.com/how-silk-is-made.php… two of these three sites actually support (and one sells) silk. Just so you can see I’m not making it up.
Alternatives – http://www.aurorasilk.com/info/peacesilk.shtml – http://www.ahimsapeacesilk.com/(I’m sure you can find more on Google, not to mention SIMILAR to silk products from man-made materials)
Wool:
Despite what you might assume, while it shouldn’t hurt the sheep to remove their hair sheep are often mistreated. Sheering is done at a time that can cause death by exposure (they sheer the sheep to soon for living outside) and shearers are paid by the pound, not per sheep and thus do not treat the sheep kindly. They are often nicked and cut by the razor and some times much more painful damage. also, as soon as sheep’s usefulness is over (as with most animals used by humans) they are sold off in auction to be murdered and served up as food. Check out: http://www.downbound.com/Wool_s/271.htm, http://www.savethesheep.com/ , http://www.animalsvoice.com/PAGES/writes/editorial/investigations/misc/wrong_wool.html … there are more and I haven’t reprinted all the info here …
Alternatives: Cotton and synthetic wool
Over all, Leather, Fur, Silk and Wool are usually quite expensive anyway and all have (often cheeper)alternatives. Please keep in mind that these animal CAN FEEL PAIN AND FEAR and possibly more (see the “Do animals have feelings?” post).
If you are concerned about silk, leather fur or wool products you may own, make sure you are practical. If you own products that contain these items and you wish to stop supporting these industries consider if throwing away all the items you already have will help anyone? You have already given them your money. I would recommend replacing these items over time as they break … etc or even selling them and using the profit to either buy replacement, cruelty free items or giving the money to an animal charity (or a little of both). As I said, check out the Vegan Shoes post for links to leather alternatives.
Living Harmlessly 