Australian columnist Janet Albrechtsen is apparently in Canada and enjoying her recent purchase of a new fur coat. She also explains in her column that last weekend “Canada's National Post reported on an advertising campaign launched at the end of last year by the Fur Council of Canada, which represents 70,000 of the nation's fur traders. These sassy new ads feature gorgeous women draped in fur, one under the heading ‘Environmental activist’. The ads explain that buying a fur coat is the ecologically correct thing to do because fox stoles and mink coats are natural, renewable and sustainable. By contrast, synthetic furs are no more than by-products of the petro-chemical industry. Making a single faux fur coat can chew up 19 litres of petroleum, a non-renewable resource, says the council. Ergo, buying a fur coat is good for the planet.”
Even before the marketing campaign started, there had apparently been increasing demand for fur products in Scandinavia and China.
Meanwhile, and also according to ABC Online, Belgium has apparently already banned fur from what they consider the inhumane killing of Canadian seals while Germany, Italy and Austria have drafted the legislation, and law makers in Britain, France and Spain are considering it.
Fur farming is actually incredibly bad for the environment due to the toxic dyes and other chemics used to process the fur and the huge amount of animal waste from live and dead animals that is created as 200 animals sre skinned alive each day in China. See the report by Swiss Animal Protection- it very hard to watch the video. There is no justification for this trade. Its probably important that people realise what the difference is between wearing fur and leather shoes. There is a reasonable chance your leather shoes may come as a product of the Western meat industry- this means that your cow may have been stunned before it had its throat cut. However, 90% of all fur imports come from China, where there are no animal rights laws. About 200 animals every minute, foxes, dogs, cats (strays or abducted from owners) and raccoon dogs (who are dogs) (not that the species matters!) are bashed against the ground to break their necks to be made immobile. They are fully conscious while they are skinned alive with skinning done with knife at the belly. It can take six hours. The animals scream and struggle. The workers step on their heads to hold them down of bash them. Why do they do this? Apparently it is easier to skin a live animal than one who is dead with rigour mortis. The entire skin is pulled from the animal even from its head and then the animal body is thrown on a pile of other bodies without fur. The animals continue to blink and their hearts beat for a further 10 seconds. All exploitation of animals is cruel. But this surely is unacceptable altogether. So, start taking this issue seriously and stop buying fur. It is the only way to stop this vile trade.
It should have nothing to do with fossil fuels! The amount of people who waste the fur of hunted animals is to be considered. Maybe if every skin was used for clothing, and every animal originally hunted for eating, maybe then it would be acceptable.
As for caging them? That's retarded... Though, many people probably don't care..Do you buy freerange eggs?
"If I had a million dollars. I'd buy you a fur coat. But not a real fur coat, that's cruel." (song: Barenaked Ladies - If I had a million dollars)
I always wanted big diamond rings, loads of money, sexy men and dead animals to wear, but I quickly grew out of that childish ideal when I became educated, civilised and respected. Pity the poor western neanderthals here.
Coyote fur makes perfect sense.
There's no shortage of them here in Canada. Many municipalities are dealing with too many of them attacking dogs, small kids etc.
Swedish consumers need to throttle back their confused ethics and go with the sustainable coyote ruff.
I bought a couple of full coyote pelts for some projects and repairs. It's good fur and very reasonably priced right now.
I've always wanted a full size fur bed cover. Coyote might be affordable enough but it remains to be seen if it is hard wearing enough.
Those Canada Goose parkas are not bad for what they are. For us they are "bureaucrat coats". All the newly arrived Federal employees are issued with them as are many other government employees.
They're big, heavy as hell and are useless if they get wet. They also build up sweat that freezes if you're wearing for any length of time say, during extended trips on the land.
Sooner or later, if those bureaucrats stick around, they seek out a local woman and have her make a proper northern parka.
It looked like a fake-fur-lined jacket to me.
Hmmm....I was a little bit wrong in my above post.
One of our most popular brands is Canadian Goose and I checked out that their ruff was made from coyote fur. However , many consumers in Sweden are concerned about this and ask for fake fur Canadian Goose jackets. ( GP Sara MIGHT have a CG jacket as they are extremely well suitable for extreme weather conditions).
From Greenpeace's weblog:
" Sara, I saw your news spot last night on Network Australia (ABC Asia Pacific)from the Esperanza. A great report but what a shame you presented it in a furlined hooded jacket. You do realise the mixed message you're sending encouraging us to save whales while you're wearing fur? Think next time before heading in front of the cameras.Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Nina FitzSimons | January 15, 2008 9:55 AM "
Now I can't answer for Sarah, but here in Sweden 99% of all modern, outdoor hooded jackets are fake furlined. Retailers have a real problem to sell real fur hooded jackets to the younger consumers.
Well we still have plenty of brushtail possums here Paul, despite some people attempting to make some dosh from their fur. Going out each night and shooting feral foxes is a lot of work. They can't even be trapped reliably like our possums. I wonder if they really would take off should fur be valuable again. Forgive me, but maybe your issue is with the word "rubbish" more than anything else, and I wonder about who's being argumentative? Good points raised all round I feel.
For the sake of the Australian native wildlife it would be great if fox numbers could somehow be reduced. People are pretty innovative, but nothing's worked so far. Maybe a feral trading co.? I'll trade you 10 brushtail possums for 10 Kiwi plumbers, and you can trade 10 foxes for 10 Kylie Minogues?
Actually I don't think a feral fox fur industry will occur either. I presume you read my original post that Travis labelled as rubbish. It said "IF furs were politically correct.." That's not likely to happen.
Do you really think that if a commodity such as fox fur became valuable, no one would exploit the resources running around in the scrub and suburbs? Apparently that's what Travis thinks, as far as I can tell. What rubbish!
The Google ads that accompany these topics can provide much amusement. At the risk of hurting Paul's feelings, I have to agree that I can't see a feral fox fur industry any time soon, and can see Travis's point. In NZ there is a niche possum fur one, but it is blended with merino wool and doesn't have quite the off-appeal as a dead animal fur coat does. It is more of a niche market than anything else, but is available in tourist shops in NZ and even Australia.