Worn Yesterday

I know that this doesn't directly address the "cold" part of the "Cold in Canada" letter, but there are so many excellent synthetic warm materials now that I'm sure the writer could be snug in a less controversial coat.  

Or, how about having the coat made into pillows or a throw for the couch?  That way you wouldn't have to offer explanations to strangers who don't know your ethics.

I say, keep the coat and enjoy it.  Nothing you decide to do with it will compensate for what is long past.  

Fur my Friends:  This coat is made from cage free animals harvested sustainably for life support.

I think it's a great idea to recycle - turn it into a teddy bear (if it's a big coat, you could make a few for other family members) or donate to the animal rehabilitators.

ok to display lampshade made of human skin if person already dead?

sad to make them stand out as the ones clad in fur

sad when they show up at work wearing old fur coats,
damaged in some manner to reduce their value
so no one steals them

a badge for the homeless

not good for job interviews
why you wearing that old fur coat

how about helping the homeless find jobs
so they can buy real coats and
walk through the city with dignity and
maybe even find a home

On the one hand: Creating fur coats out of living animals is, with a few exceptions, a deeply disrespectful thing to do. It feels even more disrespectful to waste the sacrifice of the animal by not using that fur in some way until it is worn out. It also feels disrespectful of the significance of that fur in my family to use it for animal rehab. My family came to this country very poor, and the purchase of the fur coat was, at that time, a significant cultural marker of what they achieved in one generation.

On the other hand: I can't imagine wearing it. If I could, I would feel good about using it to have a complex discussion about a complex issue. I disagree with PETA on this issue. But I can't imagine wearing it - it would just feel too gross to me. So, I still don't know. Good thing I have a generation between me and the coats.

I have to think about the teddy bear idea. It would gross me out to cuddle a bear like that, but a kid wouldn't need to have baggage like that, and it would be a good opportunity to talk about the issues when the kid is older. But kids are often too impulsive to be able to treat a toy like that with the respect it deserves.

Many eco-friendly clothing designers are switching back to wool for the fibers.  It is much more comfortable than fleece (oil)and cleans much easier.  If you must have carpet that will become home to all the chemicals that you paint on your driveway and have sprayed on your lawn, make a point to buy carpet made from recycled plastics and have your old carpet recycled - mills will take it back. Please don't pile it on the curb to go to the landfill.

I encourage clients to re-use or at least take things to Habitat Restore or to hazardous waste.  I reuse old wood floors, refinish existing to look like it has history.

Learn to sew and remake old jeans into potholders, old wool sweaters into mittens, make liners for your boots out of old fur.  

The opportunities are endless with a little research and creativity

A final thought: would little baby animals cuddling into synthetic materials that degrade their environment be any less creepy than the use of actual animal materials?

Personally, I wouldn't want anyone else to wear them so I won't donate them. I literally look at them every day, wonder how modern humanity can be so cruel in the name of "fashion", and also wonder what they hell I'll do with them.  I don't think a teddy bear or pillows will do...

I am very curious, how much petroleum does it take to make 1 butt length coat with shell & liner?  It is not enough for me to know that it's from petroleum--approximately how much petroleum are we talking about?  I try to make fully informed decisions. Thanks.

Let's all support the oil companies and buy more synthetic clothing.  One more reason for BP, Chevron, and others to keep pumping oil, and destroying this planet; so you can have your synthetic fleece.  Meanwhile the ice caps of both poles continue to melt and more species continue to die; and more petroleum pollution problems continue to ruin this planet.

You don't know too much about animals if you think not killing any animals is a way to save them all.  It is better for you to overpopulate an area with too many animals so they can all starve to death or die of some other disease.  I believe that is ignorant.  

Sustainable harvesting is one way for the rest of the live animals to live a long and healthy life.  

Saving the environment and saving more habitat is the key to animal survival, I believe.  

I'm in full support of the 'reuse' argument for those who find themselves in possession of a family fur (as I did) and I don't think that cutting up a perfectly wearable item is a reasonable response to the problem. Our whole way of approaching life via material things has to shift away from looking to what's 'in' (meaning stylish but also acceptable to our friends) toward what exists now and what is therefore infinitely more sustainable than calling something new into production. If you have a fur that is in good condition, don't make it into a frivolous teddy bear to avoid the difficult questions, use it with pride. If you are scared of being seen to support an industry you don't want to support, have a good furrier or tailor help you reverse it (the truly sensible way to wear fur for the cold anyway). But do make practical use of it or give it to someone who will. Well treated, a fur coat can last a lifetime (hence the huge number of heirlooms) and we show ultimate respect to the animals, the planet and future generations by making full use of them.

In your column, you write:

"If one believes that animals should be treated respectfully, there's pretty much no way to support fur."

If one truly lived out this argument, which is based in absolutism by the way (belief in absolute standards against which moral questions can be judged, and that certain actions are right or wrong, devoid of the context of the act), then, under such absolutism, one would not type on a computer, use pens, write on paper, live in a house, wear clothes, etc., etc., etc., as a result of the disrespect, direct or indirect, each of these acts would inflict on other living beings - animal or vegetable.  

Part of the reason why we live in a dichotomous world, a contentious world, a world of war and riled up irritation, is because of absolutism.

Judgments people make about each other, whether on account of a person wearing fur, or driving a hummer, or marrying someone half one's age, or cutting down a tree, or having children, or having abortions, or being gay or lesbian, or being Catholic, or being Muslim, all contribute to the sometimes holier-than-thou attitudes in the society we live in today, in which people point fingers at each other and say, "what you're doing is wrong, and what I'm doing is right."

So, Umbra, I would encourage you to broaden your perspective, and embrace the complexity that is part of our world, rather than advocate absolutist argumentation that contributes to the contentiousness we all deal with on a day-to-day basis.

You also say, "But we believe that our individual actions have an impact, and we try to move toward a good life in all aspects of our days."

In moving closer to that good life, why not try embracing the complexity and diversity of human culture and the free will of making furred, non-furred, and used-furred choices?  

That gesture alone might help build a better world for all of us.

Thank you,
Claudia Jane

"Every bit of conservation does make a difference... Those who make efforts in their daily lives to reduce the waste behind are the teachers to whom we should all be looking to for wisdom, and reuse their positive habits enriching our own lives."

Isn't that the whole point of free will?  Being able to CHOOSE, based on personal ethics and cultural background, to conserve and reduce waste, rather than having a heavy hand TELL us what we should and should not do?

That's what lightening up is all about, at least for me, and I couldn't agree with Bobo more on that one.

Thanks,
Claudia Jane

I like the animal rehabilitator donation idea.

The PETA 'give to homeless person' idea is so wrong, for so many reasons.

Is there nothing else that you hold dear to remind you of your grandmother?  Perhaps, fond (deathless, eco-friendly) memories? If you decide to keep it, why not make a donation to an animal sanctuary to offset that choice -- save one for the one killed.

I had a pair of leather Army boots (can't much find them in non-leather variety) that I sold on eBay and donated 100% of the sale to the Farm Sanctuary -- a non-profit who rescues farm animals.

[I, too, was given a fur mink stole of my grandmother's. If it ever surfaces again, I'll have to figure out how to get rid of it.]

NoPunProductions.com ~ AmericaTheGreen.org

http://www.stadlerfurbears.com/

http://www.hicksfurs.com/beargallery.php

Greta, thanks for mentioning Farm Sanctuary, an admirable organization whose excellent work needs more publicity.

Leather is indeed as problematic as fur, even if the sources are not quite the same.  Not all leather is a "by-product" of the meat industry.  But even if it were, why should that make it OK to wear leather?

Before I was much aware of this issue, I purchased four bolo ties from Southwestern Native American craftsmen, all of which have rawhide cords.  At this point, as much as I like them, I cannot wear them, until I find some adequate plant-based cord material to replace the rawhide cords.  Any advice would be most welcome!

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

I hope you continue to consider the argument I shared with you above.  In lieu of consideration, it might be easy to brush off my comments and instead shift your focus to personal judgment, as did caniscandida.  As easy as it might be an attack mechanism, ad hominem doesn't help sift through solid thought.

As to caniscandida's request for advice, I have to question it - why purchase more goods (even if plant-based)and thereby use more global resources when you have perfectly good ties to wear?

Thank you,
Claudia Jane

I also have a mink coat received as a gift that I wear whenever it's very very cold. Once I slept under it when I had no heat in the house for three or four days. I wore it to the barn to crack ice for the outdoor animals.

It's 20 years old now. Despite abuses in the fur industry, when the coat has saved me from hypothermia, I try to weigh the pros and cons. Do you know what miserable deaths wild animals suffer? Starvation, disease, natural predation.

When you slice into that nice hothouse tomato, do you worry about the immigrants huddled in tiny block houses with no windows, no ac, who break their backs getting the fruit to market with no bruises?

 For those of you too sentimentally attached to Aunt Alice's animal hide, perhaps this is a solution. It surely won't inspire others to go out and buy a coat to cut up into a bear.

Maybe the Canadian could turn the old fur coat into the lining of a silk (is silk from silkworms pc?) or Polartec (old pop bottles put to a better use) coat. Or just wear it under a cape so people don't notice. But face it, in very cold climates nothing warms like fur. What should Inuit wear?

Giving old furs to the homeless or for animal rehab are great ideas!

Maybe the Canadian could turn the old fur coat into the lining of a silk (is silk from silkworms pc?) or Polartec (old pop bottles put to a better use) coat. Or just wear it under a cape so people don't notice. But face it, in very cold climates nothing warms like fur. What should Inuit wear?

Giving old furs to the homeless or for animal rehab are great ideas!

There is no simple solution here. The rational decision would be to wear the coat, as this animal it belonged to has long since been killed.

Everything we do has some effect on the environment it seems. Which has the least impact? Anyone know?

If you opt not to wear the coat and do not have an overwhelming sentimental attachment to it, then consider donating it to a zoo, nature center, or similar organization for educational use.  Hopefully this was what was done with the gorilla coat (ew) mentioned in an earlier post.  As disturbing as it was it would probably have made an excellent tool for educating people about bushmeat and poaching.  In one sense the more exotic and disturbing the fur, the more value as an educational tool.  Zoos and nature centers can also make good use of tortoise shell bracelets, etc.

What is really unfortunate is that so much righteous fervor is spent upon fur when there are so many other inhumane processes (trucking, glass-walled office buildings, conventional farming) that have animal impacts in orders of magnitude more severe that go nearly unprotested.

Eat what you grow, grow what you eat

There is no excuse for the horror that goes on in fur farms.  But condemning all use of fur, as in traditional Northern cultures, is narrow-minded.  Read Sherry Simpson's essay "Killing Wolves," which is anthologized in Lee Gutkind's In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction.  Simpson spends time with Alaskan trappers in order to report on them, and though she is averse to the idea of trapping, she finds not heartless animal-killers, but deeply respectful men who are brave enough to exist as part of nature that is no stranger to difficulty and death.  In these cases, taking a few animals from the forest has no environmental impact, besides the animals themselves.  Going to absurd lengths to NOT use what falls into our hands is almost disrespectful of the animals that died.

Some people here are responding on a purely emotional level with the oversimplified idea that all killing of animals is inherently wrong and repulsive.  People have relied on animals for all of time.  If only everyone realized we have an obligation to treat them humanely.  And yes, sometimes population control is humane.  Actually, Bobo, nature does need our help, because we have upset ecological balances, and some species, especially invasive ones, are running rampant over parts of the world.  We have an obligation to control these populations for the sake of native species.

Creative Serendipity

P.S.~Eat, drink, love, be loved, live, be happy, and most of all do your best.

I am a seven-year vegetarian (and yes, that means I won't buy fur or leather, either... if an animal has to die for it, I won't buy it, with the only exception of food for my cat... because cats don't generally do well on veggie diets, and I'm not going to make another animal suffer (my cat) in order to save other animals from suffering.  For cats, it is pretty necessary to eat meat; not so for humans... and yes, I have seen a vegan food for cats, but even that comes with a mess of warnings about how not all cats fare well on it, so I am not going to risk her health trying it) and I still own a few pairs of leather shoes that are yes, more than seven years old (shows how often I wear them, eh?).  I am not going to throw away something that is perfectly good and buy new ones, because that is creating waste both in the tossing of the old ones and the creation/shipping of the new ones.  Plus, I am not rich, and that is economically not smart for my budget, either.  So, I will use them until they are unusable, just like anything else, because the damage was already done by the time I came to this state of consciousness/morals, and to toss-and-buy would create MORE damage.  So I say, if it doesn't bother you to wear it, wear it (I never knew you could reverse a fur coat... that's a good idea).  If it does bother you to wear it, however, and you feel like everyone on the street is leering at you, then use one of the other (useful) ideas, such as donating to an animal rehab center (while some may think it's creepy, the little baby animal that would use the fur doesn't think to itself, "hey, this is the skin of aunt millie" ...it thinks, "warm, soft, familiar.").  You could have a custom button made for the coat if you do decide to wear it that reads something like "This coat is older than I am, and I inherited it. I am using it until it is worn for ecological reasons," or whatever.  Personally I couldn't wear it and would give it to a rehab center, but I can deal with my shoes until they're worn out, so we're all different.  Being an animal rights activist and also an environmentalist doesn't clash for me... I don't go to the extreme of one at the cost of the other.  For instance, a lot of vegan retailers advertise their "cruelty free" VINYL wallets and bags.  I'm sorry, but there are other non-leather alternatives that don't involve VINYL (for the love of Pete).  So I'm not buying their stuff just because it's not derived from dead animal parts.  On the flipside, a natural/organic/eco-friendly retailer that I love offers DOWN bedding, and I'm sorry, but that's just too cruel for me.  I don't care if it's encased in organic cotton and has no chemicals involved in it's production... there are other alternatives to chem-laden bedding that don't involve plucking some poor bird in horrible ways that I have read about and will not relate here.  The point is... it's not all or nothing.

Oh, and for the person who made the comment about eating the cereal is killing so many wheat and oat plants, instead of cows or whatnot... you are actually killing less wheat and oat and corn and so forth by eating the wheat and oat and corn yourself, rather than the beef.  There is always more corn, etc. involved in the raising of the cow than there is in your bowl of cereal.  There is some statistic that I am too lazy to look up right now that will tell you exactly how many pounds of grain went into making your one pound of meat.  It's always more grain used per pound of meat, because they have to feed the cow/pig/sheep of course, and they eat so much grain over their lifetime.  I never thought about that either until I read it in some veggie book. I do believe that plants are aware (For more on this subject, I highly recommend reading the book "The Secret Life of Plants").  Not only because I am an animist Pagan, but because of the scientific evidence such as that talked about in aforementioned book.  So I'm happy to know that eating the plants by themselves is not only saving the animals, but also many more plants (and after all, we have to eat SOMETHING).  So I try and remember to be grateful to the plants that died/gave a part of themselves for my food.

Anyway... I hope the original question-asker tells us what her ultimate decision was! : )

save the world, one click at a time: http://www.thehungersite.com (and link to their other sites while there!) : )

I am disappointed that some people concerned about petroleum use simply assume that real fur is a petroleum-free product just because it came from an animal and is therefore "natural" and "renewable". Let's think about this a bit more deeply.  To take the hides and pelts of an animal and make them into a fashion product, you're going to need to work on them a bit. Fur is processed and dyed with a number of harmful chemicals such as chromium, often in China, a country with few environmental and labor regulations. And once you buy a fur, new or used, you'll need to have it cleaned.  And the only way to clean a fur without damaging it is dry cleaning, which involves some pretty horrific chemicals.

Also, a tremendous amount of fuel is needed to ship these pelts around the world. Pelts from animals raised on fur farms or trapped in the woods (and I don't think these trappers are driving hybrids to check their trap lines) are shipped to the auctions, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and so on.  It also takes a huge amount of fuel to house, feed, and slaughter the thousands of animals on fur farms.  It takes about 40 mink to make just one full length fur coat.  

So the bottom line is that if you're concerned with petroleum use, don't spend your money on a $5000 real mink coat that needed large amounts of harmful chemicals and fuel to produce when you can buy a synthetic coat that very likely used a fewer quantity of chemicals and fuel and probably costs a lot less. The main reason why real fur is so expensive and is considered a "luxury" is because of the huge amounts of input needed to produce it.  Common sense really.

Same goes for wool and leather. Just because it's a "natural" material doesn't mean it's environmentally friendly.  Livestock accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emmissions, and that includes cows, sheep, and goats.  Leather and wool are also processsed and dyed with harmful chemicals.

If you don't want to buy a synthethic coat, buy a coat made from recycled materials, organic cotton, hemp or other animal-free eco-friendly materials.  These products may be a bit more expensive than the convential synthetic coat but will almost always be cheaper than real fur.

As for the gassing of mink with carbon monoxide, this is cruel because mink are semi-aquatic animals and can hold their breath for a very long time and thus it can take a long time for a mink to die when gassed, more so than another mammal that is not semi-aquatic.

As for trapping, it's important to keep in mind tha many animals still trapped for fur are predators that are declining and that play an important role in the ecosystem, including lynx, wolves, wolverines, leopard cats (native to Asia) and bobcats.  Coyotes are not declining, but it's still unfortunate that they're being trapped so heavily given that they are important predators that kill fawns, rodents and other animals we often view as "pests".  And with coyotes, studies have shown that the more you target them, the more they reproduce, so trapping is most definitely not the way to control their numbers (though I don't think they they need to be "controlled" in the first place).

If you inherit a fur item, I think Umbra's suggestion of donating it to a wildlife rehabilitator is the wisest choice. Anything we can do to support injured wildlife and improve their chance of recovery should be supported.  Most wildlife rehabers in the US and Canada are volunteers and depend on donations of supplies and funds.  

For more information on locating a wildlife rehaber near you, visit
http://www.nwrawildlife.org/page.asp?ID=214

Alternatively/in addition, have it sewn into a waterproof silk or synthetic cover. It will still keep you warm, and nobody needs to know what your waterproof coat is padded with.

Destroying the coat won't help the mink. They've been dead longer than you've been alive. Frankly I find the idea of mink teddy bears and throw cushions perfectly revolting.

--Gatta

For what soft-hearted sentimentality is doing to animals in their native habitats, I strongly recommend Stephen Budiansky's The Covenant of the Wild, for a common-sense approach to wildlife management, which does NOT include killing off predators (per the agendas of that idiot in Boise, Idaho and that idiot in Washington, D.C.) to save the poor deer and elk or make some moron with a high-powered rifle feel like a Great White Hunter.

However:

1. You might want to read what Stephen Budiansky has to say in Chapter 1 of Covenant of the Wild about the protection of elephants in African game parks, where populations are falling drastically due to the poaching of elephants for black-market ivory, versus the elephant management program in Zimbabwe, which involved the local villagers in maintaining the elephants and their habitat. The villagers shared in the income from tourism and the ivory from culled animals. From 1960 until 1990, when the international ban on the sale of ivory went into effect, the population of the elephants in Zimbabwe nearly doubled. Elephant habitat also increased, because some villagers turned their land back to elephant habitat instead of farming it. And as you may imagine, the local people come down very hard on poachers.

2. You might want to give some thought to the ivory carvers of the Far East who have been put out of work by the ivory ban. East Asian craftsfolk are not generally wealthy people.

If you want the look of ivory without the guilt, check out vegetable ivory. Vegetable ivory comes from the tegua nut, which grows on the tegua palm. The tegua palm grows in the South American rain forest. Harvesting the nuts gives a source of income to local villagers and gives them an incentive to keep tracts of rain forest standing where the tegua palm grows. Tegua nuts also give out-of-work ivory carvers something to work on, and the result is indistinguishable from elephant ivory. Tegua nuts are a renewable resource. There's a crop every year and an incentive to plant some of the nuts to make more tegua palms.

Your average fur coat or fur-trimmed garment, which is often not labelled as to country of origin, found at Macy's or Neiman Marcus likely comes from a fur farm in Utah, Wisconsin, Nova Scotia, Europe (most of which are in Denmark, as well as Finland, Norway, Russia, and Poland) or China. China now actually raises more fox than Finland, which traditionally has been the main fox fur producing country.  In terms of mink farming, China is second only to Denmark. Needless to say, animal welfare and environmental practices on Chinese fur farms has been found to be extremely poor.  Investigators documented Chinese fur farmers frequently killing the animals by slamming them down on the ground and skinning the animals while they were still conscious.