I'm vegan and I believe that animals should not be used as property (it annoys me more when people are like "oh I love animals soo much :D" but then don't think twice about the steak they eat.)
However, I'm only so/so with PETA. I heard that PETA actually puts down (aka kills) the animals they rescue, which completely goes against what they try to preach. This is why it's very important that people adopt animals from no-kill shelters, otherwise you end up supporting the evil you're trying fight.
Also, PETA sometimes advertises their beliefs in the wrong way. Nobody wants to listen to someone who is forcing their beliefs on them. Therefore, PETA usually ends up repelling people from veganism. Leading a vegan life is actually not anymore harder/expensive than a carnivore life. In fact, a proper vegan diet is much healthier than a proper meat-eating diet. By a proper diet, I mean that living off celery and lettuce, or living off McDonald's is definitely not healthy for our bodies and will lead to serious health problems.
I always hear people going "oh I would never be able to give up cheese/ milk chocolate/etc." I used to be that way when I was a kid since I did not agree with killing/hurting/abusing others for our own benefit, yet I had a very limited knowledge about veganism and I had no support whatsoever for becoming a vegan to make myself happy.
Furthermore, there is actually a wide range of genuinely tasty vegan dishes. I replace my diary cheese with soy cheese (try Teese, Daiya, Cheezly, or Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet.) Btw, did you know that a diary cow's life is worse than a cow in a beef factory? When you think about it, a diary cow is continuously suffering from being abused (yes, cows feel as much pain as your pet dog), while a cow in a beef factory has a much shorter life and therefore, they suffer less. Obviously none of them have lives that are anything near cheerful. But it's like being shot in the head vs. being tortured to death. You would rather stay alive and safe, but that gun suddenly doesn't seem too bad.
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BQ: I would rather go naked because taking a helpless being's life for my own benefit goes against my beliefs and honestly makes me feel sick. I do wear a leather watch from Fossil, but I bought it before I was vegan. Throwing my leather items in the garbage does not bring back the animals' life, but refusing to buy/support any more leather/silk/wool/etc items does. Vegans usually either give away or sell their non-vegan items, or they use them till they're worn out. Whether or not a vegan will feel comfortable sitting on a leather couch at a friend's house is completely up to that particular person. Although I, personally, am okay with sitting on my old computer chair made from leather, I am -not- okay with supporting people to buy more leather chairs. So, do you see where I'm getting at?
BQ2: I have tried eating meat after my beliefs had changed from loving meat, thinking that real leather/etc is better quality than synthetic, and that vegan substitutes sound unnatural, bland, and disgusting. And while I was eating a dead chicken, I honestly felt like puking right there. My old favorite dish (aka greasy, boiled chicken legs) turned out to be more disgusting than the steamed veggies my parents always serve at dinner.
Therefore, if I was honestly freezing cold in the Stone Age, I would probably murder an animal just to save my own life because back then, survival was hard and life became a battlefield. Of course, I would feel bad about killing someone when I would start to reflect on what I had just done (just like how you would feel if you ran over a helpless kid with your car) and therefore, I would start to feel guilty and depressed. If survival meant to continuously go against my own beliefs and make myself sad, then I would most likely take that spear and slice it through myself.