This is something I have been asking myself over the last few weeks. I am primarily a dietary vegan. I have multiple friends who are animal rights vegans and a couple of environmentals - there is some overlap, but it appears they are not identical and I am guessing that you can figure out the approximate difference between the two. But whilst I identify strongly with the health aspects of giving this a go, I am not completely insensitive towards our furry friends, so I have been looking at other ways of tidying up my own animal footprint - and my environmental one as well.
Being a vegan is expensive, if you go the whole hog; I've seen toothpaste at £4.99 for 100ml - there are cheaper varieties - but compare this to Tosca's which 40p for the standard brand. I can't afford £4.99 for a tube of toothpaste and I think you are barking mad, if you think this is a normal price for cleaning your teeth; I suspect the big supermarkets won't give a rat's arse about animal welfare in the ingredients list for personal hygiene. So what do you do as an animal rights campaigner? Shop around and suck it up, I guess. I'll stop monkeying around with the appalling animal jokes for now...
Then there are the clothes in my wardrobe - countless pairs of funky goth boots and a leather jacket. I'm dietary, so perhaps I am less worried about these items than others, BUT...imagine if you were of the animal persuasion. Do you throw these items out? Give them to charity? Sell them on eBay and use that money to buy new vegan shoes? I don't know what the answer is really. Mum gave me the money to buy a lovely pair of boots at Christmas - they cost £175 and are made of leather. I won't be chucking them out, but even I can see there are very good boots out there that are not made of animal skin. Then again, how do I know that those leather-free shoes haven't been glued together with a by-product of an animal if you buy them at Asbo, or Sanesbury?
Yes, you can buy shoes and boots from vegan shops by getting yourself into London to visit stores, but have you tried buying shoes that fit and that are comfortable over the net? The Factor-of-Eve: I am not quite a size 3 and my feet are so wide I can't wear kids shoes. My bunions are horrific and I have slightly clubbed toes, left over from pre-transplant days. On top of that, my feet callous up quickly because my walk is not quite right.. I usually only find shoes in M&S that I can tolerate on my feet - they are leather. I don't go into London very often anymore - the travelling is just too much now and I am not prepared to order something over the net, find that it is wholly unsuitable and then have the stress of getting to the PO to return the item and wait for the refund. I've hardly left my house in the last 2 ½ weeks. I am not always capable of running about, completing errands like this. Clearly my footwear problem isn't going to go away any time soon and in cases like this, the best 'vegan' approach is probably to look after my current footwear and only replace it when it can no longer be repaired. Hopefully by then, this issue may have resolved itself - somehow.
Another idea that has cropped up again in a conversation is the question of eating eggs and dairy produce. I am currently avoiding anything animal based, so this is not aimed at myself, but I do have one friend who is considering adopting some commercial chickens that are bound for the knacker's yard. They'll be free range and have a home for life on his land - he'll benefit from the eggs. I like this idea - a bit of give and take! Further more, instead of a life span of 68 weeks, his chickens will get their full run of 6-7 years. I suspect some vegans would disagree with this, but if I had the space (and was allowed near birds) then I think this would work for me.
Then a week or so ago, I stumbled across http://www.farmaround.co.uk with their 'Cow Nation', 'Hen Nation' and 'Izzy Lane' (sheep). If Harefield 'strongly suggest' I reintroduce dairy back into my diet, then I will be sending my custom to them. I'll leave you to read the website and decide for yourselves if this is a good compromise, or not.
To be absolutely clear about this, I am not 100% sure what Harefield will say when I tell them about my Diabetes experiment. I've heard other patients having their heads bitten off, for changing their diets and not informing the hospital as it seriously mucked about with their blood test results. Hopefully I have been sensible and kept my fat consumption high enough, to be certain of absorbing the immune-suppressant, but I am bracing myself for a bit of a telling off. I'll know on the 10th whether I can stay vegan, or have to switch to a variation of vegetarian/pescetarian/omni, but at least I feel 'safe' knowing there are some animal-friendlier alternatives out there.
And what about my medication? That is clearly not going to be vegan and I am not stopping taking them, come hell or high water! Even your basic pain killers aren't necessarily free from animal products. I'm not even going to bother asking if I can be switched to an animal friendly version: I'm allergic to most immune suppressant drugs and honestly I take what I am told to take and I like it - at least, that's what I tell myself. Honestly? Medical testing on animals will happen. However, I think we've enough hair dyes and lotions to last a million life times, that we should not be testing those on animals again. But, if it came down to a hospital testing a drug on my mum, or on a monkey - the monkey's taking the drugs. When it comes saving the life of a family member or a friend, my morals go out the window...
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