A question about animal products being used for our items.

I ask this question because whilst i am not a veggie or an animal rights activist, i don't particularly like the idea of animals being killed purely for the purpose of making something i get pleasure from as a hobby. I appreciate that this is such a hard field to avoid, as there are probably animal products in most things these days, i just want to be a bit more aware of it thats all.

So my question is regarding instrument part manufacture. I play the guitar, acoustic, and am experimenting with different materials for the saddle and nut. I've heard that bone can produce a nice sound, and have been given some buffalo bone to play with, but this is where i start asking questions.

You hear activists and general animal lovers shouting all the time about animals being killed needlessly for our products, and whilst i don't partake in this myself, i do take my hat off to them most of the time.

However how do you know if an animal has been killed purposely for that reason or if thier remains have been used once they've died from natural causes? For example, if a buffalo died naturaly, and it's remains were put to use, i'd be ok with that. If a buffalo were shot purely because the guitar industry wanted nice parts on it's instruments, i'd think again.

Same with some of the exotic woods used for instruments, they look lovely and can sound amazing, but if i know they've been gained from illegal logging and have killed off entire generations of wildlife just to get it, it's hardly appealing to me.

Some races of people use every part of the animal to thier benefit, is this wrong if it has died naturaly?

I'm interested in all opinions on this.

Thanks,

CX.

I know that in some stores here in Colorado buffalo is a regular meat product, it may be that they are using the bones from these animals for your guitar pieces.