Seeing as it was effing freezing last night, I went out with my big furry cossak hat on.

Its rabbit and lovely and bloody warm. However, the reaction I got when walking in the pub would suggest that I'd become a kiddy-fiddler or something. I got a right load of grief.

Can't see the problem myself. I'd happily eat ickle fwuffy bunny wabbits, so why the knee-jerk crap about wearing a few of the furry feckers on my big baldy bonce.

Anyone else wear fur? Or if you object to it, why?

personally I wouldnt wear seal, mink, fox, i.e. something harvested only for it's fur but as I'm not a vegetarian I do wear leather and would have no trouble wearing rabbit.

How is down collected for coats and sleeping bags, does the contributing fowl live or die.

I dont mind fur if it is used practically it is when it is used purely for decoration is when I object. I guess that may sound a bit hypocritical.

My brother-in-law bought me back a pair of mittens and a hat from India. The mittens looked like they were made from kittens fur, and had a bit of gristle left inside so I gave them to the charity shop. The hat is made from something brown and super soft. Could be a baby fox or something? I wear it but prefer my goretex one. I wouldn't buy fur, but do buy leather. Is leather any less cruel?

If it's dead and you're cold, wear it.

Might be best to give it a bit of a shake first though.

Maybe the nay-sayers would like animals to carry donor cards.

If I was cold enough I would even kill it myself, in fact as it's snowing now the next doors cat looks quite tempting!!!

I wouldnt wear seal, mink, fox, i.e. something harvested only for it's fur but as I'm not a vegetarian I do wear leather

I seem to recall someone telling me that some cows are bred for leather, some for meat and that we don't eat the meat from the "leather" cows (probably gets used for dog food or something).

Could be bollocks though.

Could be bollocks though

One of the main dogfood ingredients…. 😯

ask yourself one question – what would ray mears do?

the reaction I got when walking in the pub would suggest that I'd become a kiddy-fiddler or something

I think I'd do a double take if I saw this walk in to the pub

Wear as much fur as possible, the more endangered or 'cute' the donor species the better, extra points for ivory buttons – they're only animals………..

Confession time: back in the 70's in my hippy days, I bought a secondhand fur coat from Kensington Market. It stunk but I loved it. I also had an afghan coat (didn't everyone then?).

I am very politically incorrect these days so my answer is "yes, I would and flaunt it".

I've been to the north pole and frequently do dog sledding events in the arctic cirle as well as eastern Europe. If someone has a problem with a rabbit fur hat well I really don't know where to start.

If they are not wearing leather and don't eat meat I'll respect their point otherwise tough.

I've shot and eaten all manner of animals and I'd rather show it the respect it deserves by using all of it than shying away from the realities of nature.

And I know a hungry wolf or bear would happily snack on me if it caught me unawares likewise my concerns for Mr Bunny's feelings are of little consequence to me too when I'm cold or hungry.

I wouldn't wear a panda skin coat -don't get me wrong I beleive in preserving the balance of nature, but a rabbit fur hat!! Crickey, where they waving their copies of the guardian at you at the same time?

…and breathe.

lol, i reckon we should use what we kill.

I think its offensive that people DONT use the fur from rabbits they eat.

vegitarians and fur protestors are cruel!

if your gonna kill an animal, as is totally natural, use every last little piece of it, dont bin half of a perfectly good carcass.

its only cruel if the animal is treated badly. in some places they dont kill the animal before skinning it, so it doesnt damage the fur, which is pretty sick. but once its dead, i think thats the end of it, treat it like any other "product"

leather cows have it cooshy, bred in fields without barbed wire or pointy trees to prevent scratches in the hides.

I've got some sealskin mitts & a hat that an Inuit Eskimo made for me as a present
very warm they are too

>I think I'd do a double take if I saw this walk in to the pub<

Scarily it also matches his beard.

I think anything as prolific and edible as rabbit is fair game (sorry)but got a major problem with folk shooting up rare / endangered animals

uplink, that I couldnt object to however the seal furs that the "ladies who lunch" wear downtown here I think are OTT

and yes I was wonder also if that hat was made from bits of his missing beard !! very close match there.

uplink, that I couldnt object to

Fair enough but they were given to me as I was leaving so didn't really have a choice

What Olly said. If you're going to use animals for a purpose that involves killing them, then treat them well while they're alive, give them a decent death, and make sure you use as much of them as possible.

So a rabbit hat made from wild rabbits which have been shot to provide meat is, if you take the meat consumption as a fait accompli, indisputably better than not having a rabbit hat from a meat rabbit. Of course a rabbit hat from a rabbit farmed in a cage and killed solely for its fur is quite easily argued to be objectionable.

Here's an interesting point, though:

Rabbits and other animals are essentially renewable resources. The fuel involved in their production is essentially just plant matter, which is itself a renewable resource. So a rabbit hat, even from a farmed rabbit, is an environmentally-friendly product. A garment made from synthetic fur or fabric, however, is made from non-renewable resources in terms of oil and the funny crustacean things that get dredged out of lakes hundreds of times quicker than they can reproduce, and those materials have been extracted by means which themselves involve further use of non-renewable resources.

So whilst farmed fur clothing can be argued to be ethically unsound, it can also be argued to be sustainable and environmentally-friendly.

Discuss 🙂

Doing the medieval re-enactment stuff this question often crops up.
As we don't just do the 'beer n' bash' events we are sometimes hired to do 'courtly' or period murder/mystery events. This calls for some people to play posh and that requires fur. Our clothes are usually trimmed with rabbit fur (yes i eat it too) and we source it from charity shops. Those old lady fur coats are usually made from cheap rabbit fur dyed a variety of colours, so if the colour is ok we buy them for a song and cut them up.

We regularly get the anti-fur people making nasty comments at us but the coats are about 40yrs old, made from a food animal and when all said and done we are portraying people who didn't even understand the concept of human rights let alone animal rights.

And no, we can't use fake fur because it's blatantly obvious it's fake!

in some places they dont kill the animal before skinning it, so it doesnt damage the fur, which is pretty sick.

If cows do this when you try to ride them I find it hard to believe that skinning the thing alive is a possibility!

If I eat mink is it okay to wear a mink coat too?

I wonder if my local curry house does Mink Balti?

I have a a nice umbrella stand and coffee table at home. Oh! and before anyone complains, I did eat the elephant as well.

Use fur, its dead. and keeps you warm.

Particularly if its a hand me down, use it, its recycling which is apparently a good habit.

mastiles_fanylion – Member

If I eat mink is it okay to wear a mink coat too?

I wonder if my local curry house does Mink Balti?

m_f, years and years ago when I was just a lad we lived briefly next to a mink farm ( gawd it stunk ) and I vaguely recall asking one of the family what they did with the meat and was told it was not fit for eating, something about the musk glands made the meat too pungent

I think you'd probably find the same applies to eating beaver btw.

We regularly get the anti-fur people making nasty comments at us but the coats are about 40yrs old

the rabbit wouldnt have used it that long! ungrateful little scrotes!

I hadnt thought of Bez's "renewable source" argument either.

as long as we resepct what we kill, and dont go any kill off a species (though this argument is only for our own conciense i hasten to add, species become extinct daily, and new species replace them. the last snow leopard wont know hes the last snowleopard, and if he did, probably wouldnt really care, until he had no lady snow leopard to screw)

down with the anti fur nazis!

Mink are nasty little things. I have litle interest in, but no qualms about wearing mink as long as it wasn't skinned alive -which I really do draw the line at.

When I was young I spent an afternoon out in the fields with my mate's Dad and some guns & sticks after an AL group had freed a load of Mink into the local area and they were devastating the wildlife.

The thing of course is that the anti-fur stuff was quite valid at the time. Animals were being farmed in large numbers solely for fur, and that's not good. So the campaign aimed to see the fur trade as the unpleasant thing that it was.

However, the fur trade is not the same as fur. A more conscientious fur trade based solely on by-products would be different. The problem then, of course, is that fur then becomes accepted, fashionable, demand rises, by-products can't meet the quantity or consistency required and the thing ends up going full circle.

Perhaps now that meat traceability is light years ahead of what it was 20 years ago, a more mature and considered consumer approach to fur might be possible.

..it was not fit for eating, something about the musk glands made the meat too pungent
I think you'd probably find the same applies to eating beaver btw.

I'm sure MrsGrynch would be delighted to hear you publicly refusing to eat pungent beaver. 😯

The thing of course is that the anti-fur stuff was quite valid at the time. Animals were being farmed in large numbers solely for fur, and that's not good. So the campaign aimed to see the fur trade as the unpleasant thing that it was.

However, the fur trade is not the same as fur. A more conscientious fur trade based solely on by-products would be different. The problem then, of course, is that fur then becomes accepted, fashionable, demand rises, by-products can't meet the quantity or consistency required and the thing ends up going full circle.

Perhaps now that meat traceability is light years ahead of what it was 20 years ago, a more mature and considered consumer approach to fur might be possible.

Bez for President!

personally I wouldnt wear seal, mink, fox, i.e. something harvested only for it's fur but as I'm not a vegetarian I do wear leather and would have no trouble wearing rabbit.

Seal isn't actually harvested for fur alone. Or at least depending on the source it's not. Canada's Inuit survive on seal, and use every bit of the animal. So wearing seal can be to contribute to the survival of a whole people.

For me, whether it's seal, fox, mink, rabbit, beaver, or bear, I say 'wear it'.

Canada's Inuit survive on seal, and use every bit of the animal. So wearing seal can be to contribute to the survival of a whole people.

Saxon, I don't know and I'm not prepared to argue the point but I would have to question if that is true during the spring kill. That certainly goes beyond "normal" usage by the Innuit

I was going to get one of thee sporrans:

Roadkill – eat the meat and wear the fur…you know it makes sense

AFAIR, about 100 geese are needed to supply the chest feathers for a down jacket, maybe more.

imagine how angry the hippies would get if GAP started selling fur coats…

(some geese are live-plucked, and plucked more than once – apparently there is evidence to suggest that this is extremely painfull and stressfull – NSS, i don't know which is worse, that some suppliers kill the geese, or the live-pluckers)

i'm in the 'haven't really thought about it, but have an instinctive reaction against fur' camp.

if i'm not allowed to shoot 1 elephant to supply me with 4 good coffee tables, then surely killing 100's of geese just to make a pub-approach jacket is worse?

so wrong it's wrong

Geese are reet tasty.

I grow my own fur :o)