I know this is the second time I’ve recently posted about something that’s not really on the radar for most people, but I think a huge part of advancing animal rights is to work from the bottom up to address these sorts of lesser-known but low-hanging issues. The animal agriculture industry is a huge, intertangled web, and any node that can be eliminated makes it less deeply entrenched – in this case by giving it one fewer outlet to turn a profit through its byproducts/coproducts. Eliminating animal products from badminton would impact both cow (leather-lined base) and bird (feathers) welfare.
Incidentally, here’s the website for the Duck Off Project.
Pool cue tips are another place I’d like to see a real vegan alternative. It’s such a small percentage of an even smaller population it would take a vegan world chmpion or something to make real progress.
I love pool but I don’t think there is a viable way to avoid the leather tip, it kinda sucks.