Anti-Fur Campaign Resources

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Question-and-Answer

1. Fur farming is an ordinary agricultural industry.
Fur farmers like to say this because they believe it justifies their behaviour. There are important differences. Animal husbandry almost solely aims at production of food. Animal husbandry only makes use of domesticated animal species which have been kept for that purpose for thousands of years. Mink and foxes are not domesticated and have been on farms for less than 100 years. They are killed on the farm and not in government inspected slaughter-houses.

2. Animal skins have been worn as long as man has existed.
They had to because there was nothing else to wear. When the necessity of wearing animals skins disappears, the justification disappears. Dog carts were an old tradition too, but society progresses and adjusts its ethical standards. Even polar expeditions don't use fur coats anymore, because there are better, less expensive, warmer and lighter alternatives available.

3. We also wear leather.
Leather is a by-product of the meat industry. Although more and more people choose a meatless diet, as long as people eat meat there will be leather. Alternatives to leather shoes are more difficult to find. The same objection as to fur applies to leather like snakeskin and alligator. Leather lounge suits and coats are, of course, not really necessary either.

4. If we eat their meat, can we also wear the furred skins of goats, calves and ponies?
The meat of these animals is often eaten. But wearing their fur lowers the threshold for wearing fur in general and will encourage buying the fur of purposely bred animals. Many animals, such as goats and lambs are bred for their fur in the first place. Karakul lambs are killed immediately after birth, just for the sake of its fine, curly hair, while there is no meat to speak of.

5. Fur is a natural product, which is harmless to the environment.
Skins are prepared by using strong chemicals and are often dyed. Fur farms cause serious environmental pollution because of the high chemical content of the fur farm waste that pollutes the groundwater and may leak into lakes and streams. The farming and trapping of fur bearing animals has caused disruption of the ecological balance in many areas.

Real or Fake?

FEEL: the best way is to feel the difference by rolling the hairs between finger and thumb.

Fur: feels smooth and soft, easily rolls between the finger

Faux Fur: feels coarse

LOOK: collars of longhaired fur - blow on the hairs so they divide

Fur: often made up of several layers of thin, almost curly hairs which form a dense under-wool, through which the longer hairs stick out. The base is leather.

Faux fur: simpler in structure, individual hairs are often the same length and even in colour.

PINCH WITH A PIN: through the base

Fur: the leather resists, pin is hard to push through

Faux fur: pin easily goes through the base

BURN TEST: (pull, very carefully) a few hairs from the fur and hold them to a flame.

Fur: singes like a human hair and smells similar

Faux fur: melts like plastic and smells like burnt plastic. Forms small plastics balls at the ends that feel hard between finger and thumb.

Links

Animal Use Links:
International Fur Trade Federation
Fur Online
Trappers Association

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