Philosophical Vegan Forum

Yeah so I just figured out that most everyday items contain some animal parts.. I feel as though this was something I should have known, yet was ignorant about for the time I was vegan. I feel as though I did something wrong.

So it all started when I was in an argument with a meat-eater. I was obviously winning, then he told me that everyday items such as batteries and glue contain animal gelatin. Of course, skeptical at first, I asked for a source, then he sent me this link. (Just copy link, right click then goto "Go to" site for those technologically impaired ones)

http://deliciousliving.com/blog/10-thin ... egan-arent

Of course, I was shocked to figured this out, and I did some extra digging. I couldn't find any other major sources on this subject. I did make some arguments back, but this has been bugging me for the past 15 minutes now. The guy called me a hypocrite for not being a true pro animal rights activist or whatever. But then again, this is still the internet, so the source may be totally false.

There's only so much a vegan can do in this animal dependent world. Batteries are in your computer, car, phone etc. It sucks if it's true, but if we carry on and slowly become a more vegan society we will address these issues.
The same goes for the amount of animals that die during the harvesting process of grains we eat. The more humane we get, the more we will sort these things out and make improvements to the industry and machinery to reduce suffering.

You try to avoid animal products as much as possible, and since that is what you're advocating you are not a hypocrit.

You can't find other sources to back it up because it's just speculation. The ingredients in these things are proprietary, trade secretes, and not public knowledge.

In old school production, animal products were used extensively. Most glue now is plastic based, and it's likely that animal product addition would weaken the base.
High performance chemistry is very demanding, and raw biological sources, particularly proteins like gelatin, are unlikely to be up to most tasks today.
Almost everything is synthetic now.

There are only a few places where gelatin is still used widely, and it's usually because of cost, not because there aren't replacements, in non-rigorous applications.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin#Technical_uses