FAQ's
Who is That Vegan Vulture?
My name is Grace and I am a queer, vegan witch and bone lover based in North East England. You can find some more information on my ‘About’ page!
Why ‘That Vegan Vulture?’
'Vegan’ is a little obvious - I’m ethically vegan in my day-to-day life.
Vultures are carrion eaters that clean up the dead to keep the local eco-systems clean and thriving. Now, obviously I don’t eat the dead that I find. But I do relate to vultures in their sense of cleaning the dead.
‘Vulture Culture’ is the community that collects the dead and other natural trinkets. I thought it important to combine my veganism with this culture in my name so people knew right away my stance on animal welfare, and just how important it is to me.
Where do the bones come from?
The bones I sell are foraged by myself, my partner, and my parents. I get a lot of messages from other people, friends and family, letting me know the locations of animals they’ve spotted whilst out and about.
I travel to and forage in forests, moorland, beaches, coastal grasslands, and other other natural habitats that I can get to. Whilst foraging I do my best to look for any signs of a cause of death - doing my best to ensure these animals haven’t been hunted, trapped, or killed on purpose in any way.
Very very occasionally, I will get animals donated to me from other situations - these are always communicated with my audience.
Why not use bones from hunting and/or butchers?
Some deaths can be slow and painful, such as certain natural predators’ hunting methods and terrible accidents that can happen on the roads. Despite this, I wholeheartedly believe that as humans, we do not hold the right to end a life unless out of absolute necessity. This is why I won’t sell animal remains whose lives have been taken on purpose - whether that be from the food industry, from pest control situations, from traps, or any other method of purposeful murder - but I will consider doing so of an animal that fell victim to the road.
Road traffic accidents can be a tricky one to navigate sometimes, as they are accidents and not the result of a purposeful attack on their life, however a lot of accidents leave the animals dying over some time rather than an instantaneous death. I do my best to figure out how quick the animal will have died - there are certain signs you can check for this. I also work with my intuition and the energies I feel - some animals I simply move out of the road to rest, some let me know they are okay to come with me.
How do you choose what to keep and what to sell?
Some of what I collect I feel a firm connection to - this can later change. Some I don’t feel that personal connection to. And some, I keep because of how they died, and I wouldn’t feel right profiting off of their circumstances; this situation specifically can lead to me returning them to nature or gifting them to a friend or family member.
Ultimately, it is entirely based on what I can feel around the animal and in myself.
Do you collect everything you find?
No. Admittedly, some bones are too damaged for me to be able to work with.
I also try to feel the energies around what I have found and what my intuition is telling me. Some animals want to stay in nature and rest. Some bones I don’t feel anything at all. Some bones I feel a firm ‘no’. Some question, and later I know whether I should keep them myself, sell them on, or return them to nature.
What is your technique for cleaning?
If I'm able to, I let nature complete most of the decomposition process herself - I leave recently deceased bodies in their spot or in a nearby bush and mark the location to collect at a later date so the local wildlife and the earth can take back as much as they need from the body. If I’m unable to do this for some reason, I have a section of my garden cornered off for natural decomposition. I use this as much as possible - for the same reason.
Once as much of an animal has returned to earth as I need it to, I collect the bones - or what is left of them - to further clean. I clean mostly with plain water and then water and eco-friendly dish soap before sterilising and whitening in food-grade hydrogen peroxide.
Some particularly greasy bones, or animals that I am oxidising instead, need the use of chemicals involved. This will always be either pure ammonia or pure acetone - both of which can be disposed of with little to no environmental impact.
Why did you start selling?
As a vegan that loves bones, I really struggled to navigate the vulture culture community. Everyone has different opinions on what is ethical and I found myself unable to trust what I was being told. I realised there was a gap in the market for a vegan vulture to create a trustworthy and ethically aligned source of oddities for those like-minded to me. I decided to fill that gap myself. Being vegan, I hope that others can trust that I won’t source from places like hunt-dumps and pest control companies.
Since starting this business, I have connected with so many other vegan bone lovers that let me know how I have helped them access this hobby with more assurance as to how their oddities are being sourced.
Have a different question? Ask me on the Contact page!
Have a different question? Ask me on the Contact page!