Person the other week noticed I was wearing vegan Doc Martens (the tags are white for vegan shoes). I know they're polyurethane, which isn't great, but I'd prefer that over animal skin on my feet. This person was apparently also a vegan, but says they prefer wearing leather (what) because in their words "Animal leather is biodegradable, lasts longer, and is a by-product of the already existing meat industry." making the point that animal leather has less of an environmental impact.
I didn't know how to respond at all. I know veganism isn't simply consumption habits but it did make me feel weird. I still don't think anyone should wear leather.
Does anyone have advice? I'm just feeling weird and self-conscious now
"I'm vegan, except for meat, because the meat industry already exists, so the cow is already dead. When the meat industry stops existing I'll stop eating meat. That's veganism."
Yeah that's around how I felt. Even if leather is a by-product of the meat industry, I don't care since a meat industry shouldn't exist.
Why would they want to contribute to something that comes from the already existing meat industry, and how do they justify consuming that being different than consuming meat itself?
I don't know, I was just caught in a weird feeling where my veganism was getting accused of environmental destruction because of my shoes. Yeah it's probably the case that synthetic leather doesn't last as long as animal leather, but animal leather shouldn't be made. Polyurethane probably also shouldn't be made.
But I'm not going to wear a dead animals skin. I don't think a compromise needs to exist between environmental protection and animal liberation. We can do both.
If that person is supposedly vegan, that argument makes no sense. Lots of things would be acceptable for vegans if you just say ”oh, it's a byproduct of the already existing meat industry so it's OK”, including all dairy products.
Besides, the whole point is that there shouldn't be a meat industry at all, not finding excuses to fund it.
Meat and dairy demand vastly exceeds the demand for leather and therefore drives the production (raising and killing) of cows so aside from some very niche cases leather is a byproduct which would still be produced regardless of whether anyone actually bought any leather shoes. This person's argument isn't entirely crazy but it also isn't entirely correct since obviously the supplementary income from leather is still having some impact on cattle production.
Dairy is not a byproduct of the existing industry meat industry since different cows are raised for dairy than for meat however meat specifically from dairy cows is a byproduct of the dairy industry. So taking this argument to it's extreme you could eat meat from dairy cows or chicken meat from egg layers and be vegan which obviously is absurd.
I expect this person is in some form of climatarian to freegan pipeline and hasn't been exposed to animal liberation theory so much as environmental concerns.
I don't think it really matters. For a vegan, following "the cow's already been killed for meat" can lead to some absurd outcomes. For a dietary non-ethical vegans it makes perfect sense. For an ethical vegan, it would not.
Yeah there's one person I know who keeps asking if vegans can eat roadkill, since "the animal is already dead." It's absurd.
Nothing wrong with your shoes being plastic there are not really vegan alternatives that fit the bill most of the time.
Every single animal product is from an already dead animal (or one that will be killed soon by the industry in order for it to be profitable). Leather isn't special in this regard and you can say the same things about meat, milk, hair, bone, etc. Saying leather is a byproduct of the meat industry is itself a bit silly as the leather industry isn't just there due to people eating meat, it is an actually valuable commodity on its own and there are animals that are raised for their skin/leather and not their meat (e.g. snakes). It's all interconnected and there's no point to trying to read the tea leaves on exactly which animal products would count as "driving" the system and which would not.
I've known vegans that buy used leather products because they don't directly incentivize the industry. I personally don't gatekeep those vegans on that issue. But just straight-up going out of your way to get the animal product? That's not exactly a personal vegan choice lol.
Animal leather isn't really any better for the environment because the tanning process uses a ton of chemicals like chromium that are toxic, so if they decompose they leech chemicals into the soil, and the manufacturers tend to locate production in places like India, Bangladesh, Haiti, etc where they can get away with dumping huge amounts of chemical waste into the environment and can easily abuse workers due to low pay and lax health and safety regulations. And that's on top of the farm animals already contributing massive amounts to pollution and greenhouse gasses.
So unless their leather is artisanally handcrafted buffalo hide from a First Nations tribe that uses every part of the animal, they're delusional.
Yeah this was my suspicion but I couldn't articulate it in the moment. That person's point didn't even make sense from an environmentalist perspective.
