Hi I was just wondering about what you guys felt about using hides for protective clothing for motorcycle riders. Leather jacket and pants is something we can't be without to avoid serious injuries and death.

Thank you for contacting PETA. We appreciate your concern about the leather in motorcycle protection gear.



Although there are a growing number of vegan products on the market, many products and materials—such as wallboard, paint, car tires, asphalt, and printing fluid—still contain animal ingredients, are tested on animals, or both. Even seemingly benign vegan substances—like salt—have been tested on animals, and machinery that weaves cotton and other fabrics is often coated with animal-based oils.



The goal of veganism and animal rights shouldn’t be to adhere to rigid dogma for dogma’s sake but rather to make choices that bring about positive change. Ideally, the use of products that involve harming animals should be avoided, but it’s impossible to be 100 percent “pure.” Therefore, we encourage people to make the most compassionate choices that they can and to focus on issues that will have the greatest impact on improving the lives of animals. For more information on this subject, please see http://www.GoVeg.com/effectiveadvocacy_personal.asp and http://www.CaringConsumer.com/resources_ingredients.asp.



We understand that determining how far each of us will go to ensure purity in the products that we purchase and use is a personal matter. We respect your views, and we realize that this is a complex issue. As animal activists, we face complicated decisions like this every day, and we wish you the best of luck in all your decisions and actions that help animals.



Thanks for caring and for everything that you do for animals!



Sincerely,



Paul J. Smith

Correspondence Assistant

The PETA Foundation

http://www.PETA.org