[Vezazvqw]

When it comes down to it... there is only one question at hand, and no one or thing can worm out of this one: If not eating meat is perfectly healthy (for a modern human being, at least), if eating animals is not a question of survival (example: you live in a large city in a first-world nation, you have a house and a job/there is no need to hunt), and if animals are sentient beings and can feel "scientifically proven" pain [thus, putting them on about the same level as humans, and you may debate this all that you want], then there seems to be only one logical conclusion.

The way animals are treated today (and don't give me any of this "it's better now than it was back then" crap, because that is not the truth) is utterly atrocious. In the past, factory farms did not exist. Animals were not stuffed into cages barely large enough for them to fit in, were not forced to live in warehouses on cement, were not forced to constantly walk through piles of feces nor endure the smell of intensive indoor "farming", were not debeaked due to overcrowded conditions, were not fed the body parts of other animals (often their own species) even though they are not naturally carnivores, were not fed antibiotics to "fatten them up", did not have their babies taken away from them almost directly after birth, were not trucked long distances through the blistering sun or freezing sleet to slaughterhouses cramped against each other. I could go on and on about how animals are currently treated, but for everyone's sake I'll leave it at that.

Some people (unfortunately few, thanks to The Media and co.'s convenient avoidance of this issue and misguided widespread stereotype) find this quite objectionable, and so abstain from eating the flesh/"products" of animals. As for the issue on leather, I imagine it must be quite convenient to justify using it because it is the by-product of another industry -- but they are inextricably connected. By helping one industry you're essentially helping the other, and there are far more practical synthetic materials that are stronger, more durable, and cheaper than leather. It's difficult to be vegan in an age when practically anything involves someone else suffering because of it, but it is quite possible and is an endeavor that I both partake in and respect.

I'm pretty positive there are all-synthetic bogu sets out there that are just as protective and durable if not more so than animal-derived ones, but I haven't come across any as of yet. I bought mine second-hand, and I'm glad it's being put to use -.-;

Sorry, Lloro