Vegetarians wearing leather.

To put it as simply as possible, you need to think of being a vegetarian as a sort of sliding scale as opposed to two poles. For many, vegetarianism is about "killing less animals" and not "killing no animals at all", because that is impossible. You don't need to abstain from all animal products to reduce the number of animals you kill.

If you believe, as many vegetarians do, that it is doing good to kill less animals, then they ARE still doing good by their own criteria because less animals die than they would if the vegetarian also ate meat.

Also, consider this.

Products made from leather are often quite hard-wearing. Think how much meat you eat in a month, and have a guess at how many animals died from it. It's probably not very many, maybe only 5 or 6 (if that doesn't sound like a lot, this is because one portion of meat does not equal one animal death. One animal death probably equals several portions. And obviously, a cow can provide more portions of meat than a hen). Yeah, those numbers are just made up; if someone can find an actual number go ahead and feel free to correct me :)

One leather belt will equate to a tiny fraction of the used parts of a slaughtered cow (there's still huge amounts of leather left over, and all the flesh too); so the owner of the belt only takes a fraction of the responsibility for it's death. And a good belt will last a long time, not just the duration of one meal. Thought of that way, the leather belt isn't all that bad.

Even if a well made leather jacket took all the leather from a single animal, it would still last a much longer time than the energy from eating the meat of the animal would last, hopefully a few years as opposed to a few hours. AND the meat could still be used. With this logic, even a large piece of leather isn't all that bad.

The number of animals killed by wearing a leather jacket, a couple of pairs of leather shows and a few leather belts for a for a year is still going to be a lot less than the number killed by eating meat for a year.

I get the feeling that I've not explained this terribly well. Anyway, ask questions if you want and I'll try and answer. The TL;DR is that vegetarianism is not black and white, it's a sliding scale. You can still reduce the number of animals that die and still have leather products. It's isn't necessary to be one of the two extremes.

Well in those cases, they could actually be wearing pleather (fake leather) but I know this vegetarian (for apparently moral reasons) who wears a goatskin belt and armband, he knows it's a dead goat but doesn't care. That is one of the reasons I think vegetarians (for apparently moral reasons) are very silly.

I'm a vegetarian but I have a leather belt, here is my reasoning:

This belt belonged to my mother. By owning this belt, I no longer have to purchase a new one, and I am not creating a demand for a leather product. If you buy leather or fur from second hand stores or get them as hand me downs, it is not the same as buying them and supporting the industry that created them as a fashion product because then you are creating a demand for them.

It's the difference between going out and buying factory farmed meat, or dumpster diving for it when it gets thrown out wastefully hours later. You are not putting your money into an industry, therefore it doesn't violate my principles.

It is incredibly hypocritical. One of my coworkers is a vegan, yet he wears a leather jacket, a leather belt, and has a leather wallet.

They're being so hypocritical. The only reason I'm a vegetarian is because I hate the taste of meat, so I can wear all the leather I want without feeling stupid.

I'm a vegetarian who doesn't eat meat for one simple reason - I don't like the taste of meat, its that easy, I understand what you're saying however, it does seem very hypocritical.

maybe they dont know leather is made from animals.

when i was veggie, i wouldn't wear any leather, except for the stuff i owned from before. then again, isn't leather usually a byproduct of meat farming? i still don't own a lot of leather, but i had to give up being veggie (i was horribly anemic, and the iron pills just weren't cutting it)

Know what you tell them, "we kill animals and eat them, you pick flowers and eat them, the animals that I eat you are killing their food so the animals are starving. So you can look at it this way, you're starving the animals that you are trying to save and I'm just taking them out of their misery faster" :)

i went a short time not eating meat or animal products. but i had leather seats in my car,a leather sofa at home, and leather bags & shoes. i felt like a complete hypocrite. I still really care about animals but i found helping sick animals and stopping animal abuse is a better way for me to help them then becoming a vegan or vegetarian.

Well, from what I heard, vegitarians are willing to do a lot of things that vegans would not. Like vegatarians might consider wearing leather, but vegans aren't supposed to, and this is just what I heard. I don't know anything about the lifestyle of either as I am not one myself, so I'm not targetting anyone.

yes and no. if you're allergic to something in meat or just hate the taste of it and can't eat it for some reason -sure, have a studded leather armor for all I care.

the hippie "bleeding hearts" that are trying to save every living soul? If they do, they're hypocrites!

Well I'm not a vegetarian, but this topic is a bit one sided.
Its like saying, would you kill a wild animal and eat it, or would you just buy food from the shops.

Some vegetarians (possibly most) just don't EAT meat. They feel that vegetables with there low fat and high healthy content makes them feel more healthier. (Plus they likely are more healthier, because they're not eating Maccas hamburgers etc etc etc)

Its not just that they love animals and don't want to be cruel to them. Most are quite happy to wear leather. They just want to eat healthy. And in their view, meat is not healthy.

Latest research on this does show that meat is not all that its cracked up to be anyway. ie Vegetarians are generally healthy and live long lives. Quite obviously we don't actually need meat.

All this talk on meat, I now feel like gnawing into some bacon, grrrr get away, its mine.

They are either really hypocritical, or extremely stupid. I myself, am a vegetarian, and I would never wear real leather.

I point this out to the veggies I work with as they all wear leather steel capped boots. They rarely appreciate my insight.

Yes, it's hypocritical. Either that or just plain stupid. Where do people think leather comes from?

Almost anything in the world got a dead animal in its history in one way or another.

Ehh. I'm not a vegetarian.

Are you sure it is real leather?