In casual conversation, I mentioned to a colleague that I was looking to buy an alligator strap. He gave me a very disapproving look and likened the wearing of alligator straps to wearing fur because the animals are farmed primarily for their skins. My colleague is definately not a tree hugging, save the earth, lentil eating hippy.
This conversation got me thinking, seriously, as to whether I should buy an alligator strap. Is it OK to wear alligator straps?
Well I would. But then I see nothing wrong with wearing fur either. Except if you're a bloke it makes you look ridiculous.
I'll also happily wear crocodile, shark, eel, ostrich, buffalo, kangaroo, snake or ray straps.
So I'm probably not the right one to ask.
:D
I think it is pretty difficult to draw the line on this matter... I personally would be ok with croc, gator, ostrich and most of the other mentioned hiden/skins except kangaroo would be too much for me, not to mention something like elephant. And yeah, I am one of those "save the world" kind of guys as something must be done unless we want to drown on our own shit.Originally Posted by quoll
Now I would draw the line at any endangered species.
But farming for hide/fur? I don't have a problem with it.
Akin to farming animals primarily to eat them.
Endangered/forbidden species - NO!
Otherwise - OK...
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
It's funny how we feel qualms about the cute ones,but not the ugly or vicious.Animals to eat OK but to live a squalid life and then be killed to provide a fashion item?But then dead is dead.I think it is pretty difficult to draw the line on this matter... I personally would be ok with croc, gator, ostrich and most of the other mentioned hiden/skins except kangaroo would be too much for me, not to mention something like elephant. And yeah, I am one of those "save the world" kind of guys as something must be done unless we want to drown on our own shit.
That's the bit with which I'm having trouble. I can rationalise farming for food, but not for a strap. Up until the original conversation, I would have not given it any thought and just bought the strap. For the time being, I'm going to defer this decision indefinately.Animals to eat OK but to ... be killed to provide a fashion item?
If for some reason humans became allergic to beef products, would we farm cows for leather? Probably. These 'ethical acceptability' arguments are so labyrinthine and selective.
If we aren't supposed to use them for clothing / bags / watch straps etc, why are their skins made from leather? (to paraphrase Homer Simpson). :wink:
:lol:
Respect the past, live the present, protect the future
What if they died of natural causes?
your friends argument could also be used for livestock (ie. cows, pigs, chickens..). these animals are breed to be slaughtered.
and i bet your friend eats beef and chicken and pork.
buy gator if you are ok with it. i would.
What's so hot about kangroo? The meat's luuuuuuvley
That is true but farming also puts Alligators back into the wild. Farms release a certain percentage of their stock every year. This has helped to increase the numbers of a once endangered species and it continues to help to stabilize the population in years where disasters wipe out that all the young. Alligators are also a natural renewable resource and I'd rather use their hide than something synthetic that will sit in a landfill for eternity and is created by a manufacturing process that uses a lot of energy (from non-renewable resources) and creates pollution.
That's a good point actually, hadn't thought of it like that.That is true but farming also puts Alligators back into the wild. Farms release a certain percentage of their stock every year. This has helped to increase the numbers of an endangered species and it continues to help to stabilize the population in years where disasters wipe out that all the young. Alligators are also a natural renewable resource and I'd rather use their hide than something synthetic that will sit in a landfill for eternity and is created by a manufacturing process that uses a lot of energy (from non-renewable resources) and creates pollution.
Here in Florida alone there are approximately 1.5 million + wild alligators alone. They have populated to the point that gators now have been seen in the wild in Ohio, something that hasn’t been seen since the days of the dinosaurs.
I live close to a friend’s gator farm (about 1,500). And another friend has a gator farm in Louisiana, over 80,000 gators (prime/best quality) on that farm.
Gators are not farmed for hides. Gators are farmed for meat, a common meat here in the Southern US. Hides are the by-product, and desired by the rest of the world.
http://www.2000orlando-florida.com/Orla ... -farms.htm
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vm035
http://www.cclockwood.com/stockimages/a ... oducts.htm
http://www.louisiana-coast.com/alligator-farms.htmlLouisiana farms and harvests 1 million gators per year. Nothing is wasted in gator farming.
Buy yourself several gator straps, in doing so, you are actually paying to conserve the species.
John
I've eaten alligator. Quite tasty, too - like chicken, but moister.
I'd be opposed to farming anything just for hide or fur, but farming for food and then using as much of the animal as possible - that's OK. Furry watch straps, however, are unlikely to be hip right now.
I'd also like to think that animals are farmed in a humane and civilised manner. I shy away from mass-produced chicken for this very reason. Plus I don't like to eat animals that are kept so close together than they have no choice but to crap on each other.
I've always thought they look quite snappy.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
I've no problem with using/wearing straps from farmed animals, but would not from the wild.
Grrrrroan ... :D :D
/vince ..
I had a Black Alligator strap on a Pan lum marina i had recently, looked the absolute bollocks, mind you, for £200 it should do... :twisted:
I didn't know gator's had bollocks big enough to mke straps from :-)
BTW, are the straps water proof? :wink:
No theyre not waterproof, panerai say not to swim with them on, for that they provide a resin strap. Seawater causes them to perish...
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