Diamond & Jewelry News, Advice and Prices for Consumers
Diamond & Jewelry News, Advice and Prices for Consumers
May 16, 2010
My girlfriend's birthday is coming up next month and I want to get her some nice jewelry. I know her birthstone is pearl, so I thought of getting her pearl earrings as a present. She's a vegan, would she have any moral objections to wearing pearls?
May 23, 2010
How stubborn is she? Its true that pearls can be produced and used for jewelry without killing oysters (though such animal friendly attitude is probably not so common), but vegans are more radical than vegetarians, they not only refrain from benefiting out of the killing of an animal, but also insist not to use or eat any product which comes from animals. I have a vegan friend that in addition to not eating eggs and diary products also refrains from tasting honey. She would definitely never consider putting on pearl jewelry. Other vegans can be quite picky when it comes to food, but still wear leather shoes, sit on leather sofas and probably not see anything wrong with wearing pearls.
May 20, 2010
A pearl can be extracted from an oyster without killing it, but this needs to be done very gently and I'm not sure that people who do it pay much attention to the survival of the oyster. Perhaps they sell the remainder of the oyster to be eaten or something. When it comes to cultured pearls, some companies harvest 2-3 cycles of pearls in an oyster, but then the oyster isn't capable of producing more pearls and is usually killed. In many cases it is killed after the first cycle. Unless someone shows clear evidence that oysters aren't killed by the pearl industry I think that the logic assumption is that they ARE.
May 18, 2010
Not necessarily. Pearls can be extracted from their shells without killing the oyster. If done correctly, the pearls are carefully extracted and the oysters are planted back into their natural habitat. Ask your jeweler about the pearl earrings you intend to buy, he can tell you more about pearl farming, where the pearls were cultivated and whether the process was environmentally friendly. If you still feel uneasy about getting her the pearl earrings then perhaps you should compromise and buy her simulated pearl jewelry. Simulated pearls look similar to natural or cultured pearls, but they are completely synthetic (i.e. they were not grown inside a living organism) so there would be no danger of harming plant life or animals in their production process.
