Well, I don't know... I'd say killing 70 poor minks just to make a damn coat and therefore endanger the species, create waste and make tons of bloody money by selling the coat at a huge price is sort of disgusting, don't you think? They fucking kill baby seals for the fur and leave the skinned bodies to rot. Of course I blame rich snobs who wear fur.
Leather largely comes from cattle and the meat is used for food or at least for some cat food or whatever. It doesn't go to waste. No sane bussiness man would let the meat to rot away when they can profit from it. Also, cows are bred for this purpose. Nobody is endangering their species. The question of cruelty stands, yes, but it's valid for both, leather and fur.
Just so you know, a majority of leather is NOT made from cows slaughtered for meat. They are killed solely for their hide, though I'm not sure what happens with the rest of the body. But food cows =/= leather cows in most cases.
Oh please everyone that is trying to say minks are going extinct are stupid. I live only 2 miles away from a mink farm and it smells like a friggen waste treament plant. And they are also the most aggressive little thing ever. Sure I like to protect animals that are in the wild and the rest I believe are here for us to use so long as we kill them humanly. Period.
I've had a pet mink before, if you get them young they are VERY friendly and loyal, not vicious at all :)
Minks aren't going extinct because of fur farming per se, but it does threaten wild populations when fur farmed animals escape. It is just as equally inhumane as farming cows for any purpose though.. just because some people decree bunnies and seals "cute" doesn't mean they should have more right to being alive than a cow or pig. I think it would be infinitely more humane to let cows go extinct than breed them for slaughter.
Except when cows go extinct what are we going to eat? It might be selfish, but the fact is, we can't just let animals go extinct because the alternative is raising them to be food. I think the real answer is to let cows have the space they need instead of cramming them in buildings or fields.
I agree with letting them roam, I'm not opposed to the idea of meat, but IF they went extinct, we'd just eat plants. 90% of North America's crops go towards feeding livestock, not humans. So we'd have all that extra food for us, plus the people starving in underdeveloped nations as well. It would honestly probably be a huge benefit to the planet if cows did go extinct, but that's kind of sad :(
I really doubt that, especially since then there's the problem of getting protein. If we do the same thing for every food animal, that leaves us with nuts and tofu. A number of people are allergic to nuts, and I really don't think they're as cheap as meat anyway, which is code for there is a lot more meat to go around than nuts.
There are plenty of protein sources aside from nuts and tofu. I haven't eaten meat for 9 years and I actually eat more protein than is recommended (and I don't eat the fake meat junk). It's really really easy to fill up on protein, iron is usually the thing lacking in a vegetarian diet, but that's also easily fixed by eating green vegetables.
Which are also more expensive than ground meat.... And it's not like the cows are eating green veggies. As terrible as it is for them, most livestock is fed explicitly corn, because it's cheap and you can grow a lot of it.
But the area we use for corn crops would be used to grow other plants. Also, vegetarian diets are almost always cheaper than meat based diets. If you like meat, that's your choice and totally fine, but it's by no means impossible for the planet to survive without meat. It is widely recognized that it would be much better for the environment. But everyone can eat whatever they choose!
It depends on what meat you're buying. Ground beef /is/ cheaper than nuts and leafy greens. Yes, if you're comparing the cost of a nutty salad to a 32 oz steak, the vegetarians have a one-up, but taken from someone who lives on food stamps, you can buy a lot more cheap meat than cheap vegetables (though part of it probably also depends on where you live). However, I realize that if livestock was no longer being fed or maintained, the prices would likely change.
That's true. I'm pretty unadventurous in my diet, so I just eat a lot of celery, carrots, and bananas :p I steer clear of the pricey exotic fruits and vegetables because I'm a terrible cook
We get some lettuce, broccoli, bananas. My mom is a health-food nut, and she gets a lot of the nuts and trail mix type stuff. I really like sunflower seeds, and there are a lot of fruits and vegetables I do enjoy, but yeah, I'm definitely a meat person (I don't think I could live without taco salad :P )
Leather largely comes from cattle and the meat is used for food or at least for some cat food or whatever. It doesn't go to waste. No sane bussiness man would let the meat to rot away when they can profit from it. Also, cows are bred for this purpose. Nobody is endangering their species. The question of cruelty stands, yes, but it's valid for both, leather and fur.
Minks aren't going extinct because of fur farming per se, but it does threaten wild populations when fur farmed animals escape. It is just as equally inhumane as farming cows for any purpose though.. just because some people decree bunnies and seals "cute" doesn't mean they should have more right to being alive than a cow or pig. I think it would be infinitely more humane to let cows go extinct than breed them for slaughter.