to want a real fur coat

[choufleur]

I don't me made from baby seals or anything endangered but a rabbit one maybe.

I eat rabbit, so can't see the problem with wearing a coat made from a by product.

I agree that the level of ignorance about life outside of one's own bubble is quite disturbing, on a number of levels.

But my point is that the anti-fur lobby have taken a minority view, and affected the (UK) mainstream with it, by being very vocal. So people who have no objection to the fur industry (the vast majority) will not wear it because of the anticipated reaction of the minority who know and care about fur production - the red paint throwing/dumb bitch comments.

"vintage is just as bad as it encourages the production, really find it weird that so many find it acceptable"

That doesn't make sense to me, buying vintage doesn't mean that more vintage is produced (mainly because you can't produce vintage)

I have mixed feelings, on the one hand I wouldn't buy real fur, not when fake fur is so high quality nowadays.

However if someone offered me a vintage fur coat I wouldn't want to turn it down. For one, it wouldn't be supporting the manufacturers - they gain nothing, secondly, by not taking it I wouldn't be restoring the animal to life.

I met an old lady once who complimented me on my fake fur coat, and said she wished she could still wear her fur coats which she bought when she lived in Russia in the thirties. But knew the reaction they would get. Which is silly, because back then they really were the best way to keep warm.

Forgot to say, weirdly I've been told that by wearing fake fur I'm encouraging the use of real fur. Which seems a little odd to me.

I used to stick chewing gum on fur coats when I was young and into direct action. Once managed to get two dozen of the ruddy things in the cloakroom at the Cafe Royale.

When my Great-Aunt died, my Gran dragged my sister and I along to clear out her clothes - spent hours telling us we MUST take one of her fur coats or stoles. Even when we reminded her we were both vegetarians she just couldn't believe that we didn't want what were, to her, the height of luxury.

Disco ... Still not 'educating' me

didn't the nazis take the same view

I probbaly wont wear one now, but when i was young lived in Russia for 5 years and i had fox hat even some sort of skin boots, i cant remember.
It is wrong to wear fur as luxury, but think about those alaskans, russians,siberians and other people had used fur coats other garments for generations.

Nazi views on what?

I live in Russia.

But I could get by on man made fibres.

I wear fur for a choice. I don't especially care if people think I'm a psychopath, or cruel, or nasty.

But I am not an ill informed hypocrite. Which some are. Leather is not always a by-product. You don't actually need to eat that much chicken/steak/fish that particular week. But you do wear expensive handbags, you do eat meat and fish more than is nutritionally necessary. All is produced with varying degrees of safety and kindness. Some of how it's produced you know nothing (and really wouldn't want to know) about.

But a fur coat's an easy target. A Bottega bag, pair of Vivier shoes, a fat belly grown on cheap protein, well, that comes under the radar.

I love animals. I hunt. I don't expect many to understand the cognitive dissonance.

You really can't object to fur if you eat meat - most meat in the UK is produced in horribly cruel conditions. People here feel fine eating chicken because no one can see them eat it and no one sees what type they buy - totally hypocritical.

Always wanted one. Used to imagine having a beautiful dark wild mink and high heeled patent court shoes and casually draping it over the pack of a chair in Fortnums. If I had the money would never dare now. It was a lovely daydream though just like being Lady Penelope with a pink sports car when I grew up.

I have a fur coat qnd love it. Living in Russia freed ,e from bleeding heqrt right on sensibilities: If so,eone gqve ,e q hqrd ti,e for wearing it; I d punch e, on the nose.

Ok to eqt shit sausages but not to wear fur. Mqadness.

I have an ancient rabbit skin coat. It's not Rex fur, it's just normal rabbit. It's about 50 years old. I don't see what's wrong with wearing it. I wouldn't buy mink or anything new, but it's plain rabbit and a long time dead!

I don't have strong feelings either way about the fur industry (I eat meat, wear leather etc etc), but think that the majority of fur coats are just very....old-fashioned-looking. Not something I'd choose to wear.

YANBU. I have a beautiful sable coat. I love wearing it. When PC types comment on how many dumb animals died so I could have my coat, I tell them that my aunts were not dumb, nor were they animals[hhmm]. I refuse to feel guilty about animals that died before I was born.

This thread reminds me I need to get it re-lined.[hgrin]

I have a few vintage fur pieces but would never buy new.

BTW, I believe that private car ownership is wrong that doesn't mean that I feel I have the right to damage them. Am shocked at those who think that just because they feel strongly against something that they have the right to damage someone else's property.[hhmm]

Someone else's property? As in the animal it was stolen from with considerable violence?

I've inherited a very old Persian lamb coat, and I wear it when it gets v v cold, mainly in Munich.

I would not buy a new one, but I am as happy to wear this one for the duration as I am to eat bits of dead animals and wear them on my feet. Otherwise in this case, it seems so pointless that the lambs died at all.

I hope the anti-fur people understand that some of us think wasting the already existing animal product just to feel good about ourselves can seem even more barbaric and futile.

No, as in the person who owns it. When I was a veggie, I didn't pee on the meat in the supermarket or firebomb the butchers. What's the difference?

"I hope the anti-fur people understand that some of us think wasting the already existing animal product just to feel good about ourselves can seem even more barbaric and futile."

Do you understand why the UK and many other countries place controls and legislation on the sale and purchase of vintage ivory, vintage big-cat pelts and rugs and (certain) vintage taxidermy? The premise is the same. The controls don't bring the endangered animals back to life but they do help to reinforce the barbarism of killing these animal for the products which can be made from their bodyparts and the unacceptibility of owning things made from endangered species and make it clear that a big shiny elephant tusk or a rug made from a tiger should not be considered a desirable thing to own.

By wearing the vintage fur, one is making the statement that fur is a good thing to wear, that it's desirable and fashionable; that in turn promotes fur as desirable and fashionable; and so on goes the desire and demand for fur clothing to be produced from 'new' animals. If nobody presented vintage fur as fashionable and desirable, it would essentially lessen the demand for furs made from 'new' animals as a desirable fashion.

If you personally feel that it's acceptable to wear the coat and don't mind what it represents, wear it; but it's a fallacy to say not wearing it is a "waste".

Sorry, the "do you understand" comes across as a bit supercilious reading it back - didn't mean it to sound like that, sorry :)

Dione, a 'veggie' wearing a sable coat? The mind boggles.

I wouldn't destroy someones property. I am honestly not that type of person but I do believe in animal welfare.

The way a society or an individual treats creatures who have no voice speaks volumes about them IMO. Wearing vintage fur sends the message that wearing fur is OK, which is just wrong, though I don't consider it quite as bad as people who buy new fur. The idea of wearing a dead animal literally makes my skin crawl, all the animals that are tortured and killed for a bloody coat. Its barbaric. Deliberately causing pain and suffering to a creature for fashion is exactly the message a fur coat sends out and I don't see how that could ever be seen as OK.

I wouldn't destroy their property but if they ever said anything to me I would have no problem telling them that they are morally bankrupt and I am not going to apologise for that. fortunately I have not seen anyone wearing a fur coat in a very long time.

I was a veggie. I think that had I inherited the coat then, I probably would still have worn it. I love my coat. It reminds me of my aunts, is beautiful and warm, and I would be extremely pissed if someone thought it funny or clever to destroy it. Am I wrong?