by rylan on 01/17/08 (0 of 0 people found this comment informative)

interesting post ... this is an issue I was just discussing with a friend ... you are certainly becoming something of a fur advocate when you wear fur whether it is recycled or not ... but personally i am a big believer in putting to use that which is already in the world ... and especially in the case of fur i think it is important to make good use of that which is already in circulation ... solution: maybe add a 'recycled fur' patch to the item? (half joking) .... this quote was quite striking: today's furs are mostly from fur farms. Blameless animals are held in cramped cages until their early and gruesome deaths, when their skins are peeled off and their carcasses dumped. ouch. that makes a pretty compelling case against new furs certainly ...

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by Laura on 01/18/08 (0 of 0 people found this comment informative)

Ah, here we go. Our first real Giveback debate! Excellent. I happen to be a fur advocate. I prefer vintage, when possible, due to the reasons that Rylan mentions about reuse, however, I eat meat and wear and use animal & leather products, so drawing the line at fur doesn't make much sense to me. Unlike faux or fun fur, natural fur is a biodegradable, infinitely renewable resource that can be reused for generations if cared for properly. It's lighter and warmer than fake fur as well. Here's an interesting quote from the fur.org website: "in a study titled "Environmental Consequences of Textile Marketing" undertaken at Oregon State University in 1997 a broad range of textiles including wool, leather, fur, cotton, silk, linen, rayon, polyester, nylon and acrylic were evaluated across a number of environmental variables. For a textile to be considered compatible with the environment it had to be non-polluting to obtain, process, fabricate, maintain and dispose; 100% biodegradable; long-lasting; renewable; reusable; natural/non-toxic; energy efficient to obtain and produce and producing minimal waste in it's production. In composite scoring across all environmental criteria, the farmed and wild fur outperformed all other textiles."

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by rylan on 01/18/08 (0 of 0 people found this comment informative)

ah, well ... i guess the question is regarding the ethics of 'farming' living creatures for their skin or meat ... i don't really think there is much debate to this ... most likely a person is either just OK with such action or isn't based upon one's personal moral compass ... (not to imply you are bad person if you eat farmed meat / or wear farmed furs - just that you have a different perspective on it) ... ;)

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by Laura on 01/18/08 (0 of 0 people found this comment informative)

Darn. I was all ready to slug it out with you and there you go being totally reasonable. :)

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by Laura on 01/18/08 (0 of 0 people found this comment informative)

Regarding the textile study, it's too bad it doesn't mention hemp or bamboo. Wonder how they'd stack up.

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by madhvi on 01/30/08 (0 of 0 people found this comment informative)

checking in a bit late so i have no idea if anyone will read this. laura: i understand what you say about fur being a biodegradable resource...but infinitely renewable? hmmm, that seem dubious. renewable means that it will have life over and over, so i suppose if we breed fur-bearing animals, in that sense it is renewable. seems a bit off-putting to me to think of it that way. i eat chicken and eggs and wear leather but i find it okay to draw the line at fur. it may seem hypocritical but i do what i can. why does the process of obtaining fur have to have such needless pain attached w/ it? obviously the killing of any life has an element of violence, but cruelty? not necessary. more humane methods of raising and slaughtering (and this goes for factory farmed animals for food as well) are in order.

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