Fur - yes or no?

[MrsCampbellBlack]

Interesting article about fur in September vogue. Seems its becoming popular again and I just wondered what people's views were on here?

Personally I'd wear shearling as not sure that's very different to leather (is it??) but wouldn't wear real fur.

So does anyone wear real fur?

[Peetle]

Farmed fur is just as bad, if not worse, than battery chickens, sweatbox piggeries, etc, etc. Plus the animals farmed for their fur, specifically mink, are a nightmare when they escape - or are released by some misguided Animal Rights folk. There are some real problems in Scotland with escaped mink. You don't get much of a problem with escaped chickens and pigs - at least they don't set up colonies which devastate the local wildlife.

I think part of the objections to fur is the elitism implied by wearing it, as much as the animal rights aspect.

I've been a vegetarian for over 20 years. I do wear a small amount of leather though I don't buy shoes very often, and then not always leather ones.

[EasterHoliday]

Definitely not. I have turned down all the dead animal coats and hats my mother has offered me, aged or not.
I do eat meat but i see eating as a more essential function than wearing fur, adn generally eat what's been bred and killed at our local farm (having fed teh pigs broccoli stalks for a while). No farrowing cages or battery chickens in sight.
The means of killing a lot of fur / exotics and reptiles to preserve the integrity and pattern of the hides / skins is so utterly revolting (unborn lamb handbags? no, ta) that I don't go there either, however little I'm a fan of pythons while alive.
I think it's also an 80yr old Manhattan lady / flash Russian look on the whole too and I'm not really a Cavalli sort of girl.

[MrsMcEnroe]

I wear real vintage fur (pre 1970) and so do many of my customers. It's a big seller for me. May as well recycle it if it's already dead.

[squoosh]

No chance.

If you're living in the Arctic Circle hunting the animals yourself and wearing the furs to stay alive fair enough. But the idea of wearing another creature's pelt just gives me the shivers. The fur industry is beyond barbaric.

[Fluffycloudland77]

I'm vegetarian, our eggs come from a farm that has its own chickens that run around all day with the cockerill and the dog and the farm cat.

[sparkle12mar08]

Well given that the dairy industry results in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of new born male calves every year, and a vastly foreshortened life for the female breeding stock, you may as well go vegan if you're veggie on welfare grounds.

[Fluffycloudland77]

I have soya milk, I've been allergic to cows milk for years.

[squoosh]

So either you're a vegan or you're living an unethical lifestyle?

I don't claim to live a 100% ethical life, but I don't buy factory farmed meat and I wouldn't buy fur. I don't claim to be a paragon of virtue but I have some principles I try my best to stick to even if I'm not always successful.

[MrsCampbellBlack]

I think people are less anti-fur now than say 20 years ago at the height of the PETA 'I'd rather go naked than wear fur' campaigns.

And I didn't know that the fur industry was supporting students to use fur although I am not surprised. Its clearly a very lucrative industry.

[DioneTheDiabolist]

I have a vintage fur coat that my aunt's husband gave me after her death. I love it. And it still has a faint smell of her perfume.

[sparkle12mar08]

If those particular ethics bother you then yes, squoosh, pretty much. But we all just do the best we can within our own lives.

For the sake of completeness I should say that I'm a meat eating, dairy drinking, leather wearing person! I'd happily wear fur too but can't afford it.

[PasswordProtected]

I have 2 fur coats, both pucked up on ebay. I live in Europe, where it is cold in winter & do wear one if them now and again.
Very practical & no worse than wearing leather or suede.

[Annianni]

I've got a Zara jacket/cardigan that I bought in Spain about 6 years ago... It's rabbit fur on the front.

I've not worn it for a few years as it's too small.
But it's very nice and I'd probably wear it this winter if it fit me.

I eat meat. And I was brought up in a shooting household.

My mum wore fur coats when she was younger and they were fabulous.
I nearly cried when she said she'd thrown a blue fox fur away a few years ago.

I doubt I'd have worn it out, as it would be a bit OTT for the school run.
But I would have kept it for dressing up

[PoopMaster]

I think for me the problem would be that wearing fur would be seen as really bourgeois (or at least where I'm from) - we have farms round here though so the life/death cycle part doesn't bother me so much, if the animals are getting looked after.

[saintmerryweather]

i used to have a major problem with fur when i.was younger on welfare grounds but then i grew up a bit and realised what a hypocrite that made me since i eat meat and wear leather happily enough. i wouldmt wear it myself but i dont care if others want to. i did want.to buy a reindeer skin rug when i.went to iceland cos it felt gorgeous but i couldnt get it back on the plane

[sameoldIggi]

Would never wear it and am afraid would judge anyone I saw doing so. There's just no need

[coffeeinbed]

no

[womma]

Absolutely not, it's vile.

[cloutiedumpling]

I wouldn't wear it. I'd be afraid someone would throw paint at me. No one around here wears it either so I'd look really out of place.

If I lived in a very cold country I might consider it.

[LaurieFairyCake]

It's not the same as eating well looked after and killed quickly meat though.

Skinning an animal alive is just wrong whichever way you look at it. Keeping animals in hideous tortuous conditions also horrendous.

Recycled vintage - better than landfill
Ethically produced - ok (providing not skinned alive, treated well while alive, by product of the meat industry)

Anything else is hideous and makes you the worst kind of fucker IMO.

[ProjectGainsborough]

Wouldn't buy new as I'm not convinced it's an ethical industry. Saw a gorgous fur collar in a vintage shop and am having a conversation with myself as to to whether to buy it, though.

[ProjectGainsborough]

Why do they akin the animal alive? What possible reason is there for it?

[Ulysses]

Am struggling to work out the difference between vintage and new?

[squoosh]

I presume they skin them alive as that way they get the full undamaged fur.

It really doesn't bear thinking about.