Shoes. Belts. Silks. Leather. Handbags. Wallets. And let me tell you, vegan leather, pleather, or Naugahyde products are terrible! I used to sell Naugahyde at Macy's, most just won't last! I'd rather have real leather and wear it into the ground!

While I'm not vegan by any means, there are some foods and products that I refuse to consume due to animal cruelty. I won't eat veal, for instance, or anything that has to be prepared by being cooked or butchered alive (lobsters may not be cute, but I wouldn't wish a death like that on anything). I also avoid furs, leathers, and products made by companies that test on animals for the same reason. In my opinion, it's one thing to kill an animal for food (and even then it deserves a quick and humane death), and another to kill it for the sake of fashion. That's my choice, though. I may not be happy to see someone wearing a fur coat, but I'm not going to be an ass to them about it or demand that they throw it away. I'll do my thing and everyone else can do theirs, which is an attitude that I really wish everyone would take. OP's roommate is just being an overnight fanatic.

#124, that's interesting. (I'm not arguing with you, I'm just comparing your rules with my own.) Personally, I don't like fur either, but I'm pretty okay with vintage fur coats, especially ones that are given, not bought and sold. I actually have a mink coat that was given to me by my grandmother, and while I don't like the idea that animals were killed for something so frivolous, the coat is older than my mom, and we didn't buy it. I also won't buy anything with real fur either. As for food? I'm okay with eating some things that were prepared alive, like oysters, because they don't have central nervous systems. I won't eat any animals that were domesticated to serve another purpose, like dogs and horses, because it just seems wasteful to me. :( I mean, we raised them for years and bred them specifically to work for us and provide us company... It's like destroying a piece of art. I also won't eat/use/buy anything that used any of the 11 species that passed the mirror test, which is an approximate measure of sentience for animals. So that includes all the great apes, some dolphins and whales, etc. I don't have a problem with medicine and vaccinations that were tested on animals, because to me, that falls under the "food/survival of the species" clause. However, testing cosmetics on animals is horrible. What's even worse is that it's legal for cosmetics companies to use things that were tested on animals and still label their products as "not tested on animals". >:( This is why I don't wear makeup.

124, in many cases, pigs, chicken and cows are also put through a lot of abuse, especially if the store or restaurant gets them from factory farms that are more concerned about efficiency and profit than they are about animal cruelty and the safety of their workers. This is why I stopped eating meat. I'll only eat it if I can get it from a local farmers market where I know there is a far lesser chance of it being abused and so I can support a smaller local business that probably has better environmental standards as well. Anyways, given your stance on veal, maybe you should look into this and avoid those products as well?

#152: I don't wear makeup either, for that very reason. Also, if you're in the United States, the intellectual property laws protect cosmetic companies who knowingly poison their consumers. Over 90% of makeup and beauty products tested positive for some pretty extreme toxins, including lead and cadmium! These companies hide behind "trade secret" laws which allow them to not disclose everything that's in their product. Besides, at least in the case of beauty products like creams and moisturizers, it's pretty much snake oil. There are plenty of natural moisturizers (olive/coconut oil, for example) that work much better than what's sold in stores. If you take good care of your skin, no makeup is needed anyway. On the subject of the mink, I don't blame you for keeping it. I would have, too. If it's a family heirloom or has sentimental value then throwing it out on principal would just be a complete waste. It's not like you'll somehow bring those minks back to life, and it's not like you supported the company that made it personally. As for testing in the name of science...that's something I'm honestly conflicted on, because not all scientific labs are created equal. I am aware that there are some research labs that treat their animals fairly, despite the fact that their experiments could kill them, but then you always have the ones that don't...and it's damn near impossible to test certain things without a living test subject, so it seems to me rather unavoidable. I guess it's one of those things I'm just on the fence about.

#169: I live in rural South Carolina and any meat that I buy comes straight from a local butcher who's very well known in the community for treating his animals well. Thankfully, because of where I live, I can get a lot of my food without having to step foot in a grocery store; which is something I'm glad I started doing, because you definitely notice a huge difference between pure, wholesome foods and the overly processed, pesticide ridden, steroid injected crap in stores.

I don't see how vegetarians can be okay with other people eating meat. If you truly believe its wrong, then by sitting by and letting it happen, you're not doing any good. It'd be like someone in Nazi Germany saying "You can kill all the Jews you want, but I'm not going to kill any." You're still allowing something you believe is wrong to go on without a fight. In other words, passive vegetarianism is pussy vegetarianism, and I'm a Nazi because I like meat.. I dunno if anyone will get where I'm coming from here, but yeah I don't mean to offend anyone, I'd still rather not have people shove their beliefs down my throat, but it seems like if eating meat is so wrong, shouldn't there be some sort of moral obligation to put a stop to it? :P

#92: There's a difference between being a vegetarian and being vegan. Being vegan has more to do with animal rights, while a vegetarian could be a vegetarian for many different reasons-- they may just not like meat, for instance, or they believe a plant based diet is more healthy. #19 said they were a vegetarian, so that doesn't necessarily mean that they believe eating meat or consuming animal based products are wrong.

You don't have to be OK with it, but you have to know to whom/when mentioning it will not get you abused. We're the minority not the majority and as OP's flatmate is proving going batshit-crazy-vegan on the people around you does nothing but create animosity. If i laid into my friends every single time one of them ate meat infront of me i'd never have any friends. I seem to be doing quite well leading by example - came to uni, 1 vegetarian in flat. Year and a half later? 3 vegetarians in flat. All with no psycho abuse. (I'm willing to bet it helps i'm the best cook)

Haha I think it would also be funny to raise chickens and then eat them.

In addition, some brands of "male birth control" are also not vegan. If she's sexually active, make sure to make her aware of that too :-P