Wardrobes

In our society, we are encouraged not to know about animal issues. Factory farms, abattoirs and animal laboratories are closed to the public. But it’s unlikely the public are keen to visit them anyway because they are such ugly places. More importantly, it’s frightening to see how easily we kid ourselves. We reckon we can’t object to what we haven’t seen with our own eyes. We also reckon that if teachers at school thought we should know about all this, they’d have taught it to us from an early age. If we aren’t taught something then we reckon it’s probably not worth knowing about anyway. And if any of this warped logic doesn’t sway us, we can be sure that our own backup defence shield will swing into action, to act in our ‘best’ interests. We know all too well that if we take on board issues concerning animals, then our life must change radically and that we’ll be inconvenienced.
By heading down this road, one realisation leads to another. For example, as soon as dairy products are implicated in the cruelty argument, everything made with milk is ethically questionable and our conscience is going to pressure us into avoiding dairy products altogether. That spells inconvenience big time. If vegans are allowed to explain why they boycott dairy products, they almost pose a threat to society’s whole existence.
Vegan ethics compromises the status quo. Imagine what would happen when the same arguments are applied to our wardrobes. Health arguments obviously don’t apply here. Leather shoes, for instance, are not "bad" for ones health, but they are hardly ethical items since they come from exactly the same slaughterhouse as meat does. (Leather is not so much a by product as a co product, since the viability of its production is usually on an economic par with meat). Our most fashionable attire is often associated with the death of animals. Even vegetarians who still wear leather can’t justify it and that puts them in a difficult position. If in this respect they are compromised they can’t hold (let alone promote) an animal rights position. And so that’s the problem. People who seek the liberation of animals may still be propping up the animal industries by products they buy and use.