A few weeks back I mentioned that fur is a key trend for the upcoming Autumn/Winter season. While most people wouldn’t blink at the thought of buying leather accessories or wearing leather jackets or shoes, wearing animal fur is a contentious issue that inspires passionate debate from those who sit on either side of the fence.
The fur issue is a complicated one. Are you a hypocrite if you are against wearing fur but happily purchase leather shoes and accessories and enjoy tucking into a steak? Why is it okay to eat some animals but not to wear the skin of others? An animal skin is still a skin – no matter which animal it comes from or how cute, ugly, intelligent or moronic that animal happens to be. Killing an animal and wearing its fur isn’t a new idea; it has been happening for thousands of years and for early man, wearing animal skins was not a fashion choice but a basic necessity.
These days things have changed, with the most significant development being the fact that animals are now ‘farmed’ for their skins. If animals need to be farmed for this purpose it can only mean that demand for animal fur is increasing and it wasn’t until I started researching this piece that I stopped to think about how these animals are being treated. Suddenly, the decision not to wear real fur became a whole lot easier. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel comfortable wearing a fur coat that may have come from the skin of an animal raised on a Chinese fur farm.
A serious lack of regulation in farming practices means that animals in these farms are kept in revolting and miserable conditions, crammed into tiny, filthy cages and often beaten to death or strangled. Many times they are knocked unconscious and skinned while still alive. If you don’t believe me head to the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) website where you can see video footage of this happening and you can actually hear the animals scream. It’s terrifying and gut-wrenching stuff and it’s not just exotic animals that are getting this treatment, but also cats and dogs that are being killed for their fur. Just think about someone wearing your pet as a hat or a vest – it’s horrifying.
So is ethically sourced fur an option? Animal activists would say that there is no such thing, but what about using the fur of animals that are considered pests? A few years ago New Zealand’s solution for a possum plague was to start producing a range of possum fur products – most notably the possum fur mirkin. Over in the US, the swamps of Louisiana are being overrun by Nutria. These small rat-like creatures have been declared a pest and local councils are paying hunters to kill them. Nutria fur is now being used by designers like Michael Kors and Oscar De La Renta in their collections. It’s being marketed as the conscious-friendly fur choice because the animal has lived a happy cage free existence in its swamp before it became the trim on the hood of your new parka.
A few weeks back I purchased a faux fur vest which I love, but it has got me thinking: is wearing faux just as bad as wearing the real thing? By wearing an imitation fur vest do I condone others wearing the real thing? And while I’m happy to ease my conscience with the knowledge that a fluffy bunny hasn’t been skinned alive for the sake of my wardrobe, I imagine that considerable resources are required to create my faux fur vest, so I’m probably still contributing to the destruction of the habitat of some rare creature in the Amazon jungle.
And so things get even more complicated as the decision of whether or not to wear fur brings up larger considerations about the impact our fashion decisions have on the environment and how heavily we choose to tread on the earth. I remain confused and quite convinced that I am a hypocrite. Now that I know how animals suffer for the sake of a fur coat, I’m certainly never going to wear real fur, and yet I relish the thought of a roast dinner and (until such time as vegetarian shoes and accessories actually start looking good) I’m certainly not willing to give up leather goods and shoes. Can I move past this hypocrisy?
I have deliberately chosen to remain naive about the treatment of the cows, sheep and pigs that make their way onto my plate and my feet because if I started to investigate it, I have little doubt I would feel compelled to stop eating and wearing them. On the plus side, a decision like this would allow me to purchase an entirely new ethically sourced and cruelty free wardrobe, so maybe it is my next move.