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Should Vegans Buy Second-Hand Leather?
When it comes to the myriad ethical choices that vegans make every day, listen to your heart — and ignore folks telling you otherwise
So you’ve found the “unmute” button on the industrialized dissolution of living beings into ingredients, clothing materials, and cosmetics. You’re sifting through all the noise — a cacophony of horrific cries from animals, environmental activists, and maybe even an infamous Oscar winner’s speech or two. Your gut is recalibrating. It can be an emotionally intense and empowering experience to let yourself hear the noise and make that fateful choice to go vegan.
Amidst the whirlwind of adopting a new lifestyle, you still have to make all the once no-brainer decisions about what to eat, to wear, which products are cruelty-free, and maybe even where you work. A new din of questions without easy answers can make decision-making a paralyzing endeavor. Can I eat the non-vegan food that my roommates are about to throw away? Do I have to throw away my wool coat to call myself a vegan? Is it really not OK to buy leather second-hand?
Choosing to be kinder to animals isn’t a purity competition. It’s a lifestyle made up of a never-ending series of personal choices.
I’m writing to inform every single vegan out there that not one of us has the authority to answer these questions. The vegan police are fake news. Choosing to be kinder to animals isn’t a purity competition. It’s a lifestyle made up of a never-ending series of personal choices. The answer to these questions so often directly relates to our own privilege, needs, and the reason we went vegan in the first place.
In an ideal world, we could have unlimited natural and financial resources to donate all of our animal products and support sustainable vegan fashion companies. We’ve all seen the horror videos of helpless geese screaming as their feathers are plucked from their chest. The weight of their suffering under a layer of a down loft can feel suffocating. Privileged vegans, you need not remind us. Don’t allow the vegan police to bully you into financially harming yourself.
