myoptika wrote:
Isn't it blindingly obvious that sheep aren't slain for their wool, but other animals are for their fur?
Which is why I used the example of milk, not wool.
Incidentally I believe if you don't milk a dairy cow very nasty things happen, so it's exactly analogous with the wool.
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Wouldn't it be excellent, if, for once, such a discussion could be had without immediately defaulting into smug condescension against anyone who tries, for whatever reason, to minimise their consumption of farmed products?
Except if they don't drink milk but wear wool that's exactly not what they're doing. They're making the choice based on ignorance to make themselves feel smug.
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I'd imagine that anyone who would complain at a vegan for 'not doing it properly' is someone whom it is fairly safe to ignore.
EDIT - That's not aimed at people questioning, like in Mimi's post, but at people saying "you're not a real vegan, you eat/wear/copulate with XYZ".
Isn't that completely stupid though? That means it'd be perfectly sensible for me to claim to be vegan. Oh sure I eat animals and drink milk but if you tell me I'm not doing it properly apparently you're the idiot.
It's perfectly legitimate to call people out on hypocrisy, especially when it's abundantly clear they haven't thought about it at all.
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Going back to the idea of just outright rejecting all animal produce, as per the wikipedia definition, that seems rather blinkered to me. Perhaps fifteen years ago it was very hard to determine for sure if a given brand of, say, wool was produced with no harm to the animals but today with the modern growth of organic branding it seems like it would be entirely possible to allow yourself some animal derived products in confidence that the animals didn't undergo any hardship for it. Wool is a prime example of this.
Accepted but if you do use this magic organic friendly animal product, you're still by definition not a vegan.
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i'm really not trying to make light of this - it is quite an important issue to me at the moment and something I am giving careful consideration to.
Indeed, it's a shame that most people making a major life choice on that basis couldn't be bothered to do the same thing.