Should i keep these boots(Vegetarians and other people might know the answer)???

Question

I am going crazy my grandma got me these two pairs of Minnatonka moccasin boots because I'm a hippie who loves native americans and these boots are so special to me!!!! But there is just one problem, there leather boots!!!! and I love animals so much, hence the part that I'm a vegetarian!!! So one side of me says that its wrong(animals) and the other part is telling me to keep them!!! I'm so broken up about this and another thing is she says she probably wont be able to bring them back and it might go to waste!!! My friends and family says just to keep them because they know how the boots represent who i am and might go to waste...but I don't think my animal loving concerns and fellow vegetarians won't approve!!! Please help me!!!!:'(

Answer 1

Take them out in the back yard and bury them.

Answer 2

You are a vegetarian not a vegan. The animal was killed for it's meat not it's hide. I buy leather shoes because they are better for my feet then synthetics, and I'm not a hemp shoe type.

Answer 3

Keep them.  The animal has passed on and it would be an insult to it if you wasted his carcass just to make a point.  Plastic shoes kill the environment, too.  If anyone gives you c**p, say they were a gift and you can't break your grandma's heart.  You don't need anyone's approval, so stop killing yourself about how you are going to be judged.  Also, as long as there are people eating hamburger, there will be leather products to use up the rest of the cow.  When you put them on, thank the cow for your pretty shoe's and be done with it.

Answer 4

If the gift is special to you then keep them.  If you love native american stuff, then you probably have tons of leather and other animal stuff.  Also, don't worry what others think, it's your life and your grandma.  Not theirs.

Answer 5

You can keep them though you don't have to wear them if you don't have to.

Just to remind you though: the Native Americans you admire so much would not be able to comprehend why you would not want to wear them. they certainly ate meat and as you can see, used every part of the animal from food to clothes to heating oil etc. They even used bone and sinew as some sort of twine and needle. their houses (wigwams/tee pees) were made of animal skin. And they were not all hunters either. The Arapaho tribe used dogs for their "travois" then ate them during feasts. One method of hunting was to stampede buffalo into a cliff and butcher the dead or dying animal that fell. Some of course were in extreme agony because they had broken bones etc. A chief was only as good as his teeth literally. As soon as he is unable to chew meat,(buffalo jerky or pemmican) he was finished.

Answer 6

Im a vegetarian and on my way to being vegan myself. I have a couple pairs of leather boots that I bought before I was vegetarian. The money has already been spent on them and I feel, as do most of my veggie friends, that you may as well still use them until you get your money's worth out of them.

Your moccasins were a gift, and if anyone asks you about them, just tell them that ^^ Everyone I know knows my strong beliefs about animal rights, but Ive never had to really explain myself when I wear my old leather boots out :)

Answer 7

Know that the American Indian will make 100% use of the animal that is killed for food.

The skin is tanned and made into clothing, the meat is eaten and the bones were generally ground up for use in other foods or for tools.

There is no animal cruelty, it is survival....and the products are sustainable unlike the fake (plastics) leather boots you would normally wear which causes pollution during manufacture and when thrown away.

Wear them and take care of them and they will last for many years and possibly even be able to give to your kids.

Answer 8

Don't worry about what people say. Wear the boots and take care of them so that they last you many years. Getting rid of them isn't going to do animals any good.

If anyone gives you a hard time tell them they were a gift and you don't buy leather stuff for yourself.

Answer 9

You have a few options.

1) Wear the shoes but let everyone know not to buy you leather products from now on, but that you appreciate your grandma and her gift and that you will make good use of them. They are already paid for and it wasn't you that paid it, but the industry was inherently sponsored already. Perhaps the greater wrong would be to insult your grandmother AND waste these shoes that were already paid for anyway.

2) Donate the shoes to a charity, where many people who have no shoes at all to wear (and winter is coming) would more than love to have them, since you feel ethical objection towards wearing animal skins on your feet.

3) Thank your grandmother discreetly, don't make any more of a fuss, then re-gift them to someone else that isn't ethically opposed to wearing them. Go online and order vegan-friendly moccasins like these:

http://beklina.com/children.html

You can order those in vegan or organic leather - I say go for vegan.