Looking for some vegan related gear or vegan options for items. Check out this list. A lot of them are vegan related clothing and activist wear but there are also other items. Obviously there is a lot you can buy in stores that are vegan, such as any cotton, bamboo, etc. However if your looking for active wear or certified vegan here is a list of some of the items
Materials to Avoid and do not buy: leather, suede, alligator skin, snakeskin, kangaroo, silk, wool, angora, pashmina, cashmere, shearling camel hair, mohair, alpaca, fleece, down, fur, fur trim.
• Alba Paris Art
• Alternative Vegan Boutique
• Arm the Animals
• Better Shoes (Sustainable and Vegan Shoe brands. I am not fully sure how many of these can be found in Canada but I would think you could ship them to your home.)
• BeetxBeet
• Canopy Verde
• Compassion Company
• Freedom OF Animals
• Goddess Provisions ( Spiritual tool box, felt like adding this here too)
• Hendrick & Co
• Life is Good
• Mercy for animals
• PETA
• Roots of Compassion
• Sevenly
• The Herbivore Clothing Company
• Triple Threads
• Vaute
• Veganz
• Vegan Cuts
• Vegan Empire
• Vegan Supply Co
• Vegetaryn
• Wholesome Culture- Vegan-Life
The following list is also found in the food/ products link. This however will be more extensive and will update regularly as new stores come out or discover more places!
Why not to use wool, silk, etc? They are just as cruel with the animals as raising animals for consumption.
Fur- Animals raised for fur have a horrible life, they are confided to small cages that they can barely move, they don’t have their crates cleaned so they go to the washroom where they are. Animals are electrocuted anally, because of being there for fur purposes they can not get their fur damaged. Also coyotes who are used for coats like Canada Goose they are also caught by trapping methods that are inhumane and sometimes catches more then a coyote. Dogs, Cats, even other birds like eagles are known to get trapped in those deadly traps. Coyotes have been known to eat their own foot to try and desperately escape those death traps.
Fur trim- Most people think that a lot of fur trim is fake but so often they do not label because its not of a coyote, or a fox, rabbit etc so they do not need to label it. However, an estimate of 2 million dogs and cats a year end up being turned into coats, gloves, hats, stuffed toys, fur trims and other products. These animals are bred and raised in the same horrible conditions as other animals in fur farms. Often these dogs and animals are skinned fully conscious and alive. Fur trim could be dog, cat, coyote, fox, racoon dog and various other animals.
Down- Most down and feathers are taken from geese and ducks that will be slaughtered for meat. Again these birds are kept in horrible conditions, they are locked in dimly lit sheds, cramped, no access to outdoors and absolutely filthy. Geese and Ducks are aquatic birds, which means they need water, this is also something that they do not have access too. 80% of their life is spent swimming, cleaning themselves and preening their feathers in some body of water(ponds, streams, rivers, lakes). Another method used to get down is live plucking. Often ducks, geese are plucked fully conscious. So they take them and begin to pluck them for their feathers while they are fully conscious. They let the feathers then grow back and begin plucking them again. Once that is all done the ducks or geese are then sent to be slaughtered. Live plucking is practiced primarily in China, Poland and Hungary. They are also the largest exporters of down and feathers with China being 80% of the worlds supply’s.
Leather- Its commonly used and most people have some type of leather in their homes. However, leather comes with a price. While yes a lot of leather comes from cows or animals destined to be eaten by humans procedures in slaughterhouses can be horrifying. Animals are also just killed because people are buying leather products. aOften cows are skinned alive(slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz). Dogs are also skinned alive in China and their skin is used for both fur products and smaller items like gloves, belts, jacket collar trims, cat toys and other accessories. The Major sources of leather are cows, pigs, alligators, sheep, goats, elk, deer and horses. Other animals commonly skinned, sharks, stingrays, snakes, elephants, buffaloes, and ostriches. One of the most expensive and luxurious leathers is calfskin, which comes from the skin of a newborn calves. Leather also wreaks havoc on mother nature. Turning decomposing skin into a non-decaying product like leather(tanning) requires a toxic amount of chemicals that goes into the air and into our waterways. The toxic waste gets dumped into nearby waterways which is contaminated with carcinogens, lime sludge, sulfides, and acids.
Silk- The process of silk, because silk comes from silkworms places that are doing such starts with the eggs of the silk worms. After the eggs hatch the larve weave a protective cocoon by secreting a fibrin protein from their salivary glands, this protein hardens into a gossamer-thin strand when it comes to contact with the air. (it takes 2-3 days to spin its cocoon constructed of a single thread about a mile/ 1.6 kilometres long ). This is the process that eventually turns them into moths. In nature the silk moth would break free and eventually mate to start the cycle again. The silkworm is then killed with heat-boiled, India’s silk industry exploits hundreds of children, many as young as 5 who have been sold into slavery by their parents. Contagious diseases, especially tuberculosis and digestive disorders are easily spread in crowded rooms. Bad lightening causes eye strain and even loss of vision. Kids also reported of being beaten and also verbally abused. One of their tasks involves putting their hands in boiling water to check cocoons.
Wool -Australia holds the larges world production of wool by 25%. Sheep who are being used for wool are often sheared sometimes before they should which should happen in the spring this leaves them without the insulation that they need. Its an estimate that about 1 million sheep die in Australia prematurely from exposure. Once a sheep is no longer profitable for its wool, they are then shipped to Middle east to be slaughtered by a method called live export. This method is also cruel as the animals have no access too food, or water, many end up dying on the way. This export can take a long time before they reach the middle east. Australian sheep ranchers after several years of intensive selective breeding have produced sheep that that has folded skin. Which means that these sheep have more surface to grow wool and more profit for ranchers. This has drawbacks, with folded skin on a sheep backside collects feces and urine this is a perfect ideal environment for the blowfly to deposit eggs(this is called Myiasis also called flystrike). Eggs hatch into swarming maggots, which eat into the flesh and can kill the animal within days. To combat this ranchers use a procedure called mulesing they use shears to cut two large swaths of wrinkled wool-bearing skin from beneath the sheep’s tail. This procedure is done without any pain relief whats so ever and is less susceptible to flystrike. There are downsides to this procedure however, as it takes a months time to heal and it invites blowflies to lay their eggs.
Below is a chart for items, and what you can use and what to avoid to make more conscious compassionate choices.
Credit for information Bleating Hearts The Hidden World Of Animal Suffering by Mark Hawthorne
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