To sell my mums fur coats??

[TheCalmingManatee]

They are real fur (im not sure what they are, i think there are a couple of rabbit so less value) all vintage, she has five of them I haven't a clue where she got them from, she wouldn't have bought them new, they are at least 40 years old.

Now I am categorically anti-fur, have taken part in demos etc in my past. And a rather questionable sit in in a fur department of a posh department store in my rebellious youth So, i really don't want to be supporting the fur-trade in any way shape or form. But i have noticed that there seems to be a bit of a revival for vintage fur coats.

Yesterday whilst visiting a collectors fair i noticed coats similar to my mother's for £500, you could have knocked me over wiht a feather. I asked the guy if the woman selling them (she wasn't there) was interested in buying fur and he said she was. I have spoken to my mum and she is interested, well she had actually asked me to take them to the charity shop for her a couple of months back.

AIBU to think i could get a reasonable sum for these? I would never myself wear a fur coat, vintage or otherwise and i would imagine that many other people would feel the same way as i do. I would be (on my mums behalf - but actually im willing to bet she would share the pickings!) very VERY happy to get £200 each for the coats, if she is selling them for 5!!!!

I have an underlying feeling that im mad though!

First its for a holiday, then its for your partners business and now its for your mothers roof (although she is v generous can often afford to help you out with money) so she is dry and warm this winter. Seems your reasons for needing this money are changing all the time........funny that.

perhaps you would like to re-read thru this thread.

I and the OP are two different people - and you have just confirmed an opinion of mine about 'activists'

Sorry I should have read properly I just jumped to the last few posts and I should have looked properly and I totally apologise for any reference to anything the OP said.

I still absolutley do not agree that selling fur is anything other than totally immoral. That video isn't sensationalist, its reality and I wouldn't be happy in any way knowing that anything in my posession was a result of that, and I would not be willing to make money from it.

Of course PETA do show the worst side of fur farming.

And the European fur breeders association shows the best, so here's some videos from them to provide a balance to PETAs biased videos.

Some videos of modern fur farms

The animals killed to make the coats talked about on here would have been similar (or worse) conditions than the ones in the PETA video.

Assuming that the EFBA show the best and PETA show the worst, the majority of truth lies somewhere in between, in reality, which is still unacceptable. The cages are tiny and an animal needs more than clean food and water, would you leave a pet dog or cat cooped up in a cage all day and give it food and water and no attention or freedom?

I have no problem with fur coats but I'd see someone in the OP's position as being highly hypocritical if she sold them for profit.
Bit strange that it's wrong for others to trade in fur and make a profit but ok for her because of a personalised logic which just so happens to favour her position.

The cages are tiny and an animal needs more than clean food and water, would you leave a pet dog or cat cooped up in a cage all day and give it food and water and no attention or freedom?
Thinks about millions of rabbits guinea pigs, hamsters and gerbils kept as pets in this country. Nobody gives a shit about them!

I give a shit about any animal being mistreated.

"That video isn't sensationalist, its reality "

You KNOW that absolutely, do you? you can be 100% certain that every animal whose pelt has been used to make a fur coat has been treated in that way??
Of course you don't, and unless you were actually there as a witness when the video was made, you can't be sure that none of it was staged.

"The animals killed to make the coats talked about on here would have been similar (or worse) conditions than the ones in the PETA video."
Neither you, nor I, nor anyone here can know that, besides which, the deed is done, the animals are long dead, their skins may as well continue to be of use.

My best friend used to work for a hunt. She had first hand experience of 'animal rights activists.'
Lovely people!

Yeah, yeah Saggy, and hunt monitors/ protestors can also tell lots of tales of lovely hunt people who abuse and attack them. I don't think these tit for tat personality attacks on pro's and antis really add anything to the debate over how animals should or should not be treated.

Admittedly a lot of people who say they are activists take it much much too far and I would not want to be associated with them at all. There are some horrific stories that I have heard and it gives genuine people a really bad name. Hurting a person is just as unacceptable as hurting an animal and 2 wrongs don't make a right in any circumstances. I think those types of people are just looking for a fight and would use any cause to get one.

No, but then Im not going around name calling and telling people that they are hypocrites.

'No, but then Im not going around name calling and telling people that they are hypocrites.'

Neither have I Saggy!

In fact that's what I was objecting too. Picking out certain behaviour of the other side and then tarring everyone with same brush. Both sides can do that quite easily but utterly pointless.

Sorry, I didn't mean you.

Saggypuss - I think the person who started calling names was SolidGoldbrass, everyone ignored that funnily enough.

'You KNOW that absolutely, do you? you can be 100% certain that every animal whose pelt has been used to make a fur coat has been treated in that way?? '
Do you KNOW that they haven't? Do you?! I KNOW that there's a huge possibility there is. And the end of the day these companies want to spend as little money as possible. Being humane costs money. Money they aren't willing to spend. They want their fur so they don't give a shit about the animal in itself. Why would they? Lets not try deny how these animals are treated because we all know its shit.

I have only read the first couple of pages.

If I had vintage fur coats sitting around, I would sell them as the money would benefit my family at this time. I am to broke to consider throwing them away to ease my conscience.

Oh okay Saggy. No offence taken. : )

Gold is right. These animals are merchandise to fur farmers. All they are interested in is producing good looking fur at the cheapest cost possible. Inevitable the welfare needs of the animals are not of interest if they don't enhance the quality of the fur. And most, if not all, of their behavioural, psychological, social, emotional and physical welfare needs won't enhance the fur quality and so won't be met.

Everyone's morals are relative ... I'm not a violent person at all and I think it's a stupid way of settling disputes and I don't believe in the death penalty but if it was kill or be killed I wouldn't hesitate - same goes for stealing, I wouldn't dream of shoplifting now but if I was starving ...

That said, my sister and I binned my Gran's fox fur.

A-fucking-men SGB.

Why the fuck does fur get so much attention? It's a tiny industry compared with battery farming and that's happening on people's doorsteps.

Oh, but MEN eat meat, cheap meat is the most important manly masculine thing there is. So let's focus our disgust on a handful of old ladies. Much less chance of upsetting someone important.

Good points from this thread:

1 nobody wants animals to be mistreated.
2 nobody wants fur farming to exist.
3 nobody wants to buy a new fur coat.

PeTA is really NOT a good cause to support.. If they had their way all animals would be killed off. With 5 minutes research you will find PeTA really aren't as awesome as their PR suggests - I don't think for one minute their claim of using old fur coats for animal bedding is true, esp if they can sell them for MORE money to fund their cause. I DO agree with some of their "goals" - ending cruelty in the fur trade is one but I DO NOT agree with 99% of what they do...

www.petakillsanimals.com
www.oak-tree.org/anti-PETA.html
www.huntersagainstpeta.com/
anti-peta.tumblr.com/

Personally I find PETA not a brilliant organistion to support, they're a bit heavy handed in their methods too. But the fur coat donating is a good thing which is why I mentioned it unthread.

Holdme - for fucks sake DO NOT turn this into a feminist argument. How absolutely ridiculous. I'm against all animal cruelty, but as we are talking about fur coats that's why it is getting attention right now. It's nothing to do with 'men eating meat'. What an idiotic thing to say

'Holdme - DO NOT turn this into a feminist argument.'

Quite, Goldship.

Holdme, women eat meat too. And men wear fur; hello P-Diddy and his gangsta rappa ilk. But you have inadvertently hit the nail on the head with the moral problem with the whole 'vintage fur industry'. Because it's not old ladies wearing this fur. It is young women. The whole vintage fur industry is removing the association of fur as an old lady thing, to turning it back into a young and glamourous thing to do. That is why it is not harmless but is helping to revive the fortunes of the fur industry as a whole.