Wednesday, Jul 4, 2007    Text size: 

Store owner Furry Girl, a vegan herself, told XBIZ that she first opened the store in 2004 as The Veg Sex Shop, but has revamped the store as not just a retail resource, but a site where customers can learn about the vegan products they're purchasing.

"My big focus was to provide more information about the products I sell to customers [so they] can better choose who they want to support with their dollars," Furry Girl said. "I wanted to up the ante in terms of providing more details about how product is made and where it's coming from."

Furry Girl has included product information including ingredients, where the products are made, whether women or fellow herbivores run the companies, if the company's line is 100-percent vegan and how big each company is.

She wanted to open her own store online after seeing most vegan shops placing their vegan condoms and lubricants in categories that didn't have sex as the selling point.

"The other large vegan stores hide condoms in some remote 'embarrassing things' sub-category, alongside the organic tampons and herbal herpes treatments," Furry Girl said. "I wanted to create something that had sex at its forefront and wasn't ashamed to suggest that vegans like getting it on."

Furry Girl said most of her business is in vegan condoms, which are made without casein, a milk protein. Other toys she sells are made avoiding gelatin and milk-derived lactic acid and aren't tested on animals — she even carries toys from a company that makes paddles from recycled car tires.

"Anything can be made vegan, but you're looking at different materials," Furry Girl said. "You can buy rubber or PVC whips and restraints in place of leather items, [for example]."

Furry Girl said she also carries lube from Hathor Aphrodisia, made by a vegetarian mother-daughter team in Canada and silicone toys made by manufacturer Tantus Inc.

Furry Girl also operates VegPorn.com, an adult site featuring only vegan models.