QUOTE:
I also think it's important to remind people to use things until they are used up.


Yes, thank you.  Actually, being a musician, I have many instrument cases that are wood bound in leather.  They are too expensive to replace (the only one I have replaced so far was a $600 case that I replaced with a $350 "vegan" one), but I feel like that because I know the animal cost of the ones I still have, I feel it's my duty to not just throw the cases in the garbage - what a waste of the skin which they have had stolen from them.

Thanks for making these important points, particularly regarding sweatshop labor. I edited the post to direct readers to your comment.

I understand why many vegans want to get rid of all their leather as soon as they can. I started donating & replacing my leather belts, shoes, and purses while still a vegetarian because it bothered me to use them.

That said, I also still have a couple pairs of old leather shoes buried in the closet. I buy probably just 1 pair of shoes per year (seriously--maybe 2 sometimes), and although I can't remember the last time I wore one of those old pairs, I can imagine situations in which I might need to, and I don't have the cash to go out and buy a bunch of new shoes that I'll rarely wear. Obviously, any new shoes I have purchased since going vegan have been vegan.

So I don't blame people for continuing to wear leather shoes they already owned when they can't afford to buy much in the way of new shoes--I can relate to those circumstances--but I also think it's perfectly understandable for people to want to get rid of them ASAP (in responsible ways, as described in this post) because of how wearing them may make them feel. Wearing leather (when you don't have to) also creates ideal conditions for that "but you're wearing leather, you hypocrite!" response to vegans who are trying to educate & engage people on not using animal products.

Erm, I've had my disagreements with the people here at AR, but I have to second Lisa below. Making sure to donate usable goods that are no longer wanted to those who want them and can't afford to buy new seems pretty straightforwardly altruistic towards one's fellow humans.

Stephanie even made a point to say "gently worn", which is music to the ears of anyone who believes that needing poverty assistance shouldn't preclude basic dignity.

Anyhow, I can't find anything to complain about in this post and if you'd like to take up your philosophical disagreements with AR at some other time, I'd encourage you to do it at a more appropriate point than the promotion of a genuinely valuable charity.

Ah, passive-aggressive trolling from someone still upset about long-ago disagreements on other threads. Such fun. I particularly like the way you imply that I've previously told you to "shut up," Gerald. Thanks for the history rewrite.

In any event, to answer your off-topic question, yes, vegans do understand and think about the issue of animals being unintentionally harmed and killed during the production of grains & vegetables. Veganism isn't about achieving the impossible, Gerald (i.e., about eliminating all death). It's about minimizing needless suffering and killing as much as we can.

And this argument against veganism (which is tired and not new, by the way) is a weak one. People who eat animals are responsible for more deaths in fields than people who eat plant-based diets; you're forgetting how much crop farming is done in the name of feeding (and fattening up) animals so that people can then eat those animals. Consider, for example, that 90-some percent of all soy and corn grown in this country goes to feed for animals being raised for human consumption. So those expansive fields you see being plowed out your car window? Most of them are there for you, not for vegans. If your concern is for all the animals dying in fields because of crop farming, that's just another reason to not eat animals. Significantly less land and significantly less of the deadly plowing you describe is required for a plant-based diet.

Also, to be clear in advance, I'm not going to let this thread be taken over by this tangential conversation. I've answered the off-topic question, but if this starts turning into a debate on this off-topic issue, I'll delete those comments in an effort to keep this thread on-track.

Gerald, ever eat a bun with your burger?

Ok, thank you for answering, and as for turning your blog into something else or whatever it is you bitched about, get a grip please. No one tried to circumvent your authority, so you're safe. I asked my question ,which was valid and very ON TOPIC. You seem to have a problem with me personally and you still don't know me at all.I am a vegan myself but I just do not agree with some of the tactics used by the youngsters in the group and so I querried and you took offense.Too bad..get a grip and grow up.

Gerald, I am so very done dealing with you. We had this conversation--in length--weeks ago already, after which I deleted the multiple off-topic and offensive comments from this thread (your comments as well as my responses to you), in the hopes of ending this. I have no idea why you feel the need to start this up again, but I am not about to get into it with you once more, so congrats--the thread is being closed as a result.

But for the record, given that others will have received notification of this comment from you too, you can lay off the rubbish about being a vegetarian/vegan--perhaps you've forgotten, but one of the comments in your series of deleted comments also referred to your being vegetarian, in what was apparently some bizarre attempt to give yourself and your remarks here credibility, but as I pointed out then, you made it very clear in earlier comments on this blog that you eat meat, believe you are entitled to eat meat, and have no intention of ever not eating meat. Pretending to be a vegetarian or vegan does not give credence to your childish, patronizing remarks, not even if you post the lie multiple times.

I just received your patronizing private message as well. I have no more patience. Because you've proven that you can't stay on topic and you can't keep yourself from engaging in personal, patronizing insults, please refrain from commenting on the Animal Rights blog from now on, or I'll request that you be blocked from the site altogether. Your choice.