Kara & Michael’s Blog

I’m killing my last 40 minutes at work by writing an entry.

My wallet broke at the grocery store yesterday. I’ve had this wallet for a good couple of years. It was leather and I was sort of waiting for it to break so I could invest in a non-cow wallet. But it’s so hard to find a reasonably sized and reasonably priced wallet that’s also cute. I don’t even want something that looks like leather – hemp or plastic is fine… It’s just hard to find a hemp or plastic wallet with enough pockets for all the crap I have to carry – I have like 6 credit cards and even though I only use two, I like to look at the other ones because they’re shiny. Not to even start with my insurance card, my costco card, my library card. Lots of cards.

But the search is leading me back to the vegan websites I reject for bunches and bunches of reasons. I read this book about veganism last week, it was interesting, if totally ridiculous. They had whole sections on why we shouldn’t have pets or why doctors and students shouldn’t practice vivisection. I just don’t get it – do vegans refuse to have surgery, because the surgeon has invariably practiced his techniques on the skin of dead animals and humans? It seems like if you open yourself up to their argument, you’d become a Jain within a month or two. Or just kill yourself for being born.

But that’s not to say that I don’t consistently come back to the idea that I should be vegan. That I want to be vegan, morally. Because the dairy and egg industries bother me. If I lived on a farm, raised my own animals – I wouldn’t have a problem with eating cheese or eggs. But when my choice is to drink milk and support the production of veal, when my choice is to eat eggs harvested from hens in awful conditions… I don’t feel as though I have too many respectable moral options – not from where I’m standing.

You know what else I never knew until WoDM told me? Rennet is used to make cheese. So they keep cows pregnant, kill male calves for veal, and use the by-products of the veal industry to make cheese, which comes from the cow they have to keep pregnant. He makes the point it’s a very small amount of rennet. But it just doesn’t sit right with me, and the fact that they don’t have to label it (except as “enzymes”) makes me feel yucky inside. I’d at least like to know what I’m eating. I’ve hardly gotten over my outrage about “confectioner’s glaze,” as it stands. *sigh*

Anyway, if anyone has a good idea for a place to find a wallet made with no animal products, I’d love to hear it.

K.

The contents of this blog entry may not reflect the views of the Webmaster of Doom, Michael.