Leather comes from animals, so that’s clearly not a plantbased choice (animals are not always »killed for food anyway« also, the selling of the skins is not an ecologically-driven move. The huge meat-coorporations make millions of extra money with the skin-business. It makes them even richer and stronger, not more ecological).
Wool is cropped from sheep, often in very harmful ways. The workers get paid per sheep. So they try to be super quick, which can cause trauma, pain and big wounds for the sheep. Also »mulesing« is still practiced worldwide. Therefore the skin around a sheeps butt is completely cut off, because certain flies can build nests in the wool around this area.
Alpaka, Mohair and cashmere are all materials cropped or plucked from other animals, such as rabbits, little lamas and goats. We find comparable problems in their treatment. Also it was found that the cashmere goats turn whole land fields into desert, because they eat much more than the natural residents of their habitat – the camels – would do. But that’s just a side note.
What’s next? Silk! Why? Comes from the silkworm! And the worms are usually cooked alive in their little silk cocoons, to get that fibre for fashion purposes. Yes, there is so called peace silk (»Ahimsa« silk), where they collect the old cocoons, after the worm became butterflies. Which is already an amazing approach! But why don’t we leave the worms alone and make silk out of plant derived materials such as banana leaves?
Especially in winter – let’s not forget, what is stuffed inside many warm jackets. The fluffy feathers, that normally should keep geese warm. Down is ripped mostly from living birds. Three or four painful times in their life. Then they die.
Vegans also don’t use mother of pearl pieces or horn buttons. Again both from animals. So let’s have a look at the other page of that book:
