What the hell?!

People are so screwed up
RayFish Footware

Who in their right minds would think "hmmm, lets mess around with sting ray DNA, let them grow for a few months, and then turn them into shoes!!!". Poor rays

????????? how sick!!!

Whilst this is indeed shocking to us as fish keepers, these people are still capable enough fish keepers to grow these rays for 6-8 months before "harvesting".

That is better than the majority of fishkeepers who buy "soon to be deceased" goldfish from Pets at home.

Yes messing with the genetics is a bit on the dodgy side, but growing farmed (not wild caught) rays and harvesting them for their skins is absolutely no different to using Real Leather.
Or eating caged, or the uk general "free range" hens, all of which have worse conditions.

Yes it's shocking, yes it goes against what we are used to. But as a non-damaging to the wildlife, real product that will decompose naturally instead of littering the earth forever like PVC, I can't say I have anything much against this company.

I'd say it's no different to farming salmon and feeding them GM foods to increase their growth rate so they can be butchered and sold in Tesco's.

Everything else you just posted about I'm deeply against too.
Hopefully this doesn't come out sounding as though I'm being judgemental or what ever (because I don't mean it to in anyway) , but:

I don't wear leather because of the conditions the cattle are put through before slaughter, I eat eggs only from local sources where I know they are truly free range. We only buy meat from a butchers that gets everything locally from free range farms (butchers like that are a rarity these days ). And at the moment we don't eat fresh fish because we can't get it line caught from a local source.

I used to be vegan, and although I eat meat these days, I can't get it out of my head, all the different kind of things we do to animals

I dunno, I just think we're messing with too many things as it is already without companies like this coming up with new ways of using animals for human benefit instead of just leaving them be. I mean, in the 21st Century, why on earth do we need shoes made from sting ray skin?

Good answer, in which case I can see why this offends you.

I too am against the same things, but I also accept that my beliefs are the minority, and I accept that as far as bad practices go, this one isn't at the top of the list.

We only buy pole and line caught tuna, and the only fresh fish we eat is mackeral I catch myself.
We don't have any real leather.

As for eggs and meat, we don't have the local options to really get behind. The closest we get is the Morrisons meat counter, and who knows where that meat comes from.

I guess i'm more hardened to these kind of things these days, it doesn't shock me any more, certainly shocks me less than fish foot spa's and the belo-monte dam.

Yeah, I know what you mean about being the minority. It's so much more easy and convenient to get hold of cheap meat these days, and especially for people with families, you can't blame them for going for the cheaper option.

To be fair though, Morrisons and Sainsbury's seem pretty decent compared to a lot of other big chains.

It's ridiculous, I come from a farming community, and it was impossible to get hold of local and free range meat, but as soon as we move out of Wales there's loads more options. Crazy.

And I agree that there are other problems that out weigh this by miles, but it still makes me sad that instead of enjoying an animal as it should be, alive and healthy and happy,
we figure out a way to turn it into a fashion accessory

Meh, I'm not a huge fan of humans. As individuals we can be fantastic. As a species, we suck.

Flute wrote:Meh, I'm not a huge fan of humans. As individuals we can be fantastic. As a species, we suck.

I have long had that opinion.

Whilst we're on the subject of playing God however. I wouldn't say no to owning a Green and Blue tiger striped ray, would be an awesome sight.
Though whether I am okay with playing God i'm not so decided on. Sometimes people play God and take it the wrong way (balloon molly's etc)

I dunno, just seems like needless experimenting tbh. I'm for medical experimentation in some situations, but anything else doesn't sit right with me. Especially for cosmetic reasons.

I know these rays aren't test on as such, but it makes me wonder what process they went through before they managed to get crack how to get the different patterns, etc.