At Risk?

[GlassMan]

I remember once in graduate school up at Harvard I went out to dinner with an acquaintance. We had recently met and were trying to become better friends because of shared interests. It was a frigidly cold winter's evening and we both arrived at the restaurant. I was wearing a wool overcoat and a heavy (and oh so warm) Russian mink hat (purchased in Leningrad when it was still Leningrad) and I was quite warm, while it took him a little while to stop shivering. Anyway, I ordered my normal meat laden entree and he ordered a vegetarian plate. He then spent much of the night lecturing me about how "animals have rights too" and that I should be ashamed of myself for eating dead animals and wearing fur. I let him talk and talk and talk for a while. Then I calmly asked him to hold up his jacket, which he did and it was a very nice leather bomber jacket. Then I asked to see his shoes, which were actually leather biker boots. Since the check had arrived I asked him to also take out his wallet. It was leather as well. I then asked him why it was so shameful for me to have eaten a steak and to have worn a fur hat, when he was wearing half a cow. We stayed friends but he never lectured me on animal rights again.

[highlander_Daz]

The trouble with extremists is that quite often they are the ones that refuse to listen to reason and respect other peoples point of view, If you cant change peoples opinion with reasoned debate, wit and logic then-

a. your argument doesnt hold water
b. agree to disagree like gentleman/women

however because not everyone is reasonable, there are times when direct action is appropriate. history tells us that.

things like culls animal cruelty etc are always going to cause upset, however often its the way in which things are carried out rather than then end result that causes offence.

[McRod]

For myself, i have often worn a sealskin dress sporran, knowing full well where it comes from. I personally dont have a problem with the issue. If it was an endangerd species then yes i would have second thoughts. As to the extremists, and i have one in my work area, nothing you can say will change their outlook, so i dont waste my time trying, we agree to disagree. Nature in the wild is a tough place and 'cute' just doesn't cut it.

[highlander_Daz]

There is a similar issue with Ivory on bagpipes, the Ivory used is normally from old sources like Billiard balls and ivory harvested years ago, people still jump up and down over it, Im satisfied that as long as its not from a new source its OK weve learned our lesson.

[Angus MacSpey]

There's got to be one good way to find out.

Next time PETA is in town, I'll go down there wearing my wool kilt, zebra leather shoes, baby seal sporran with wolf mask, ivory handled sgian dubh, polar bear claw necklace, panda fur hat, buckskin shirt, and of course, my lucky rabbit's foot.

[highlander_Daz]

Ive always wondered why if its wrong to eat animals -why do they taste so good?

[KiltedKnight]

An extremist cannot be reasoned with, they are just like a liberal in the fact that once you start to have an honest discussion with them they find that the truth gets in their way and then they get extremely violent.

Trying to convince these types of the truth and the facts of life is like trying to teach a pig to sing. It just makes you look rediculous and it annoys the hell out of the pig.

If any one of these decide to throw anything on my sporran they would buy me a new sporran of the same sort and obviously a new kilt- just after they spent ten minutes or so trying to lick the material off my sporran and kilt. Paint doesn't taste very good and I doubt they'd try it again.

Chris.

[MacMullen]

Ive always wondered why if its wrong to eat animals -why do they taste so good?

That reminds me of my favorite bumper sticker:

"If God didn't want us to eat animals, then why did He make them out of meat?"

[GlassMan]

There's got to be one good way to find out.

Next time PETA is in town, I'll go down there wearing my wool kilt, zebra leather shoes, baby seal sporran with wolf mask, ivory handled sgian dubh, polar bear claw necklace, panda fur hat, buckskin shirt, and of course, my lucky rabbit's foot.

I gotta see a picture of that. And if it's cold out when they visit will you add a full length fur coat?! :rolleyes:

[davedove]

There's got to be one good way to find out.

Next time PETA is in town, I'll go down there wearing my wool kilt, zebra leather shoes, baby seal sporran with wolf mask, ivory handled sgian dubh, polar bear claw necklace, panda fur hat, buckskin shirt, and of course, my lucky rabbit's foot.

And don't forget to have plenty of feathers sticking out of the hat for decoration.