I totally understand not wearing leather. But, what about wool? It doesn't hurt the animal to shear it. Are there other animal products you avoid in clothing?

I'm beginning to. Can't say I'm much beyond beginning.

The week after I decided to go vegan, I realized I needed to buy some shoes. At that point, I decided if I wasn't going to eat animals, I wasn't going to wear them either.

The leather industry is pretty horrid. I always used to think that 'at least the leather is coming from animals that are getting eaten. Of course the truth is that animals used in leather creation aren't used in our food supply.

I know the wool industry is harmful and many sheep do die due to practices.
I found one article that talks about it but I've seen more.

http://www.veganviews.org.uk/vv77/vv77wool.html

There are animal friendly and environmentally friendly alternatives for both.

I haven't bought any clothes/shoes/accessories that are made with animal products since I went vegan. It would be hypocritcal of me, I feel, to say that I won't drink milk or eat eggs but I will buy the skin of an animal.

I haven't had trouble finding shoes so far. Belts are more challenging, but only because the synthetic belts tend not to note that they're synthetic. I think finding a warm non-wool coat will be challenging too (especially because I like nice coats but I'm also cheap as ****) but I'm sure I'll be fine.

Lord no. The thought of wearing another animals' skin, hair, whatever physically repulses me and always has - even when I was a meat eater. When I went veg I did do an inventory to make sure I didn't have any that snuck through somehow and only had one pair of leather shoes - bought in a hurry after my heel broke one day on the way to a meeting. Those went to goodwill immediately when I realized it!

Nelie - Thank you for posting that link. My family doesn't understand why I don't wear wool and apparently don't believe me when I tell them the horrors the sheep sometimes go through. Then again, my father believes a cow can give milk for the rest of their life after only being inseminated once.

Logic fail!!

Sadly he is far from the only one out there... I find it sometimes works if you compare it to nursing human women - the boob juice dries up eventually

Boob juice; I love that.

No leather because I am a vegetarian.

I'm not vegan, though, so I wear wool, silk, etc.

Silkworms are killed to make silk. You should also check out the link Nellie posted about wool above.

you can find wool through smaller farms that treat their herds humanely.
i know of a few alpaca farms that shear and sell wool to knitters who then make clothing and blankets and other products.
Likewise with milk and eggs. small family owned farms.
big business is typically where things get ugly.

even big business produce growers, organic or no tear up the environment and hurt wild animals in the process. It's hard to really know what goes on behind the scenes and even harder to live in the modern world without inadvertently buying something that is produced not in accordance with your beliefs.
Or there are times you are strapped for cash, or just out of convenience need to just buy whatever's on the shelf.

For me, its easy enough to avoid milk and other dairy and eggs. I never have to worry about the fact that the 'free range' eggs aren't really free range or that the cows aren't being abused despite an 'organic' labeling. Either way at some point dairy cows become meat, even with small farms.

It is also easy enough for me to avoid leather and wool as well.

Yes, I do avoid them, for many reasons listed above.