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Do vegans wear wool?

(265 Posts)
phoenix Wed 03-Jan-18 17:35:33

Well, just that, really. I know that (most) don't wear leather shoes, obviously you can only get leather from a dead animal (ooh, just thought, they could have garments made from snakeskin, providing it had been shed/sloughed) smile

But what about wool?

nightowl Wed 03-Jan-18 18:25:05

No phoenix a vegan will not use/ wear any animal products whatsoever. Of course there are many shades of grey between vegetarianism and veganism, but the vegan end of the scale means no animal products at all. And very often, as someone said on a different thread, it means no pets either (because they don’t believe animals are ours to own or exploit).

varian Wed 03-Jan-18 18:31:21

Vegans do not wear wool, leather, silk or pearls. They do not eat meat, fish, eggs, dairy products or honey. They avoid all animal products.

phoenix Wed 03-Jan-18 18:39:32

Blimey, as someone who used to have a very well cared for flock of (50) sheep, sorry to say that although I can have some respect for vegetarians, it seems that if the majority of the world became vegan, species would die out, those employed in non arable farming would become unemployed.

Actually, change that, as a lot of arable farming is to produce animal feed.

Luckygirl Wed 03-Jan-18 18:43:23

Bizarre - do vegans want sheep to have to struggle through the summer with full winter coat? They need shearing anyway, so why not use the wool?

Chewbacca Wed 03-Jan-18 18:46:59

I was thinking that too Luckygirl, its not as if a sheep is harmed in any way when its fleece is shorn, so why is it not acceptable to use it?

nightowl Wed 03-Jan-18 18:50:47

Because wool is a byproduct of the meat industry. Vegans do not want to play any part in that.

nightowl Wed 03-Jan-18 18:57:04

Correction, wool isn’t a byproduct of the meat industry it’s an integral part of it.

Eglantine21 Wed 03-Jan-18 18:57:14

Can I ask what you wear to keep warm?It seems more environmentally friendly to wear a natural material than a non biodegradable artificial one.

NfkDumpling Wed 03-Jan-18 18:57:42

If we were all vegan Luckygirl there wouldn’t be any sheep.

NfkDumpling Wed 03-Jan-18 18:58:00

Or cows.

NfkDumpling Wed 03-Jan-18 18:58:11

Or pigs

NfkDumpling Wed 03-Jan-18 18:59:40

Or .... chickens, turkeys, ducks, dogs, cats, hamsters.

What about pond fish?

polyester57 Wed 03-Jan-18 19:00:26

No, vegans do not wear wool or silk. Nor do they eat honey. The idea is that if you do not keep sheep for wool, the land the sheep would normally graze on can be used for growing crops to feed more people. Likewise, you take honey which is intended for the bee children and replace it with sugar.

NfkDumpling Wed 03-Jan-18 19:02:10

Cotton, hemp, bamboo I suppose Eglantine. Not silk though.

NfkDumpling Wed 03-Jan-18 19:02:48

Sorry Poly crossed posts.

Chewbacca Wed 03-Jan-18 19:05:58

What about drugs/medicine? I know that vegans, and many others that are not, refuse to take anything that has been tested on animals, but does that extend to animal products being in the drugs/medicine too? And would a vegan refuse to take a life saving medicine that has animal by products in it? Genuine question.

MissAdventure Wed 03-Jan-18 19:08:53

I've been told that a vegan may well take life saving drugs that had animal by products. There is only so much they can do, and that happens to be a lot, and fairly easily.

polyester57 Wed 03-Jan-18 19:20:50

My son has been a vegan for over ten years. I am not, but do support him in every way. I do not think that life saving drugs have animal by products in them. He is on the whole so healthy that he does not take "normal" drugs. A lot of normal medicines are made with animal collagen. If it came to the crunch, he would take anything that made him well again.

Baggs Wed 03-Jan-18 19:25:36

Here's a quiz question. Gold star for the first person to guess correctly who said it. If you already know, whisht! and let the others have a chance first. You can have a gold star too.

Who said "more vegan than an actual cabbage"?

M0nica Wed 03-Jan-18 19:59:10

What crops do you grow on hilly mountain pastures like the upland moors of the north of England and Scotland?
Unmanaged these will revert to scrub and woodland. Good things in their way, but destructive of other wild habitats and their flora and fauna.

phoenix Wed 03-Jan-18 20:40:24

Baggs, that is ringing a bell, but can't bring it to mind confused

Chewbacca Wed 03-Jan-18 20:42:55

Katie Hopkins Baggs?

Baggs Wed 03-Jan-18 21:07:33

?⭐️?⭐️?⭐️ Woah, chew! Did you know already or did you find out?

SueDonim Wed 03-Jan-18 21:11:14

Interesting thoughts here! I live in rural Scotland where much of the land cannot support arable crops, it's so thin. Grazing is all it can provide.

I drive from Scotland to London several times a year and am trying to envision a 500 mile journey where I saw no animals, no sheep or cattle or even horses. I guess it would be like a trip we did across a desert in America one time. In that case, the novelty of cactuses worse off after about two hours. grin