Today I wore a rabbit fur vest into the Mamamia office. Not faux fur. ‘What’s up Doc’ bunny rabbit kind of real.
Cue horror and outrage. It was like I had a bomb strapped to my chest.
The fur outrage seems faux to me.
“I can’t believe you’re wearing a bunny,” says Mia as she patted me and then walked away in her leather shoes.
“I’d be worried someone would throw paint on me like they did to Samantha in Sex and the City,” says Caitlin as she took a bite of her ham, cheese and tomato toastie.
“Oh it feels so good, but I just couldn’t do it,” says Candice as she threw her leather jacket over the back of her chair.
Hypocrites!
I don’t understand this leather wearing/meat eating outrage over fur. Why will people wearing fur risk red paint being thrown on them but go to your local rib joint and you can happily chew on pig bones like a caveman without a care in the world?
On the issue of fur, I’ve decided I will only accept the disdain of vegans. Vegans are true to the animal rights cause because they have values and beliefs and they stick to them. I don’t agree with their stance, but at least they are not phony.
I also figure they are too weak to fight me.
I grew up in country Queensland. I tried to go vegetarian when I was 16 and my Dad sat me down and told me I was being offensive to our farming community. Since then I have been a very happy carnivore.
Yes, I know where the animals come from. I’ve been to an abattoir. I’ve grown up around farms. My eyes are open.
We once had a pig-on-the-spit in our family back yard. Dad shot the pig and I had to scrape the coarse hairs off its body with a metal pot lid.
It was delicious.
There’s an argument that leather is ethical because it’s a byproduct of the meat industry. In the minds of many, this makes it OK.
“Leather has a practicality that fur lacks. Like fur isn’t sturdy, it just feels nice and looks pretty. You also have to kill a lot more furry animals to make a single vest than you would to create a pair or boots, ie. less than one… and leather is produced as a bi-product of the meat industry that will exist whether you get dressed in the morning or not,” says Jo.
“I think fur seems worse in most people’s minds because it resembles the animal’s natural state more closely. People may see fur and immediately think of the animal, but see leather and just think, ‘nice shoes’,” says Emily.
“Personally, I’d never wear fur, and I don’t have leather items or eat meat. But I think fur is often singled. Look at the conditions of factories in countries like Bangladesh. You don’t see people walking up and stroking someone’s pretty $20 pants and then saying ‘too bad an uneducated woman was paid 12c an hour to make them’. It’s Consumer Fetishism. We’re fine with items that assist in the production of our identities but turn a blind eye to the process by which it comes to us. It’s not mutually exclusive. I’m aware of this, but I think we feel powerless to affect change,” says Ally.
“I think so many people love fur, but don’t want to admit it. Often people go out of their way to justify wearing fur, e.g. they say they will only wear it if it’s second-hand, as if that way they didn’t contribute to killing the animal. I think that if you like wearing fur, just own your feelings! Don’t apologise!” says Carla.
Boy. One vest. So many office opinions.
What are your opinions on fur?
Top Comments
I love fur. No synthetic jacket I’ve owned compares to the down, rabbit and coyote parka I bought this year. And, I’m banking this jacket will last me far longer than those other ones. I’m hoping one day to own a high quality shearling too.
It's the way animals are killed for the fur. The Canadian seal slaughter for example : baby seals are killed for their fur in a very inhumane way - because people want to feel glamorous? I understand that it's the same with leather but one can make the argument that leather is a by product of the meat industry. I know it isn't a very solid argument though. It's just I don't understand how some people are okay with killing animals for fur because they think it looks good.
And therein lies the problem.
Nitsat, you must understand that you have been fed mis-information about the fur trade from animal rights organisations who are very well financed, and very good at putting out propaganda relating to their obsession with animal cruelty.
You are not alone, and it is not surprising. A vociferous pressure group puts out mis-information, the fur trade responds, and immediately the perception is that the fur trade is on the defensive. It is the way things work. There is no reason for the status quo to shout about he ordinary running of a tradwe or business, as it simply isn't news. And yet when propaganda is spread with much fanfare and press and media coverage, it is what sticks in people's minds.
For your information. (and these are quite easily verifiable facts if you bother to learn a little about the subject. The seas are not killed as baby's. They have finished weaning and have been aboandoned on the ice by their mothers on the ice, where they remain for several weeks until hunger and instinct cause them to leave the ice and go off hunting. The few days old white seals have not been killed for decades now, that is old news.
Blunt instrument head trauma, although it may appear brutal, is in fact a very efficient way of killing an animal instantly.
My last comment posted without finishing. To continue. Seal fur, and in fact fur in general is not worn for vanity or glamour. It is worn because it is nature's most efficient materials for warmth, practicality, durability, and comfort. It is fashion media that glamorises it, but that doesn't take away from it's inherent properties..
It looks good to most people (which is why it is glamorised), and feels wonderful and comfortable to wear.
And a couple of other facts. Animals are NOT skinned alive by the fur trade, and animals are kept under good animal welfare conditions, in most cases checked on regularly by vets and inspectors. If animals were not kept well and healthy their pelts would be sub standard which negates the whole process of farming them in the first place. In some cases (and this is the same in ALL industries) some people will break the rules and try and cut corners. When these miscreants are identified, quite rightly they are named and shamed and punished. But this doesn't mean that the whole fur trade operates that way.
You can't make a substandard pelt good again simply by treating it after skinning. It will always be thinner and liable to shed hair. No one would but a fur coat made from such skins.