Your fur had a face.

Most anyone that knows me has witnessed me becoming irritated by people wearing real fur. Since, I have a huge spot in my heart for animals I decided to dedicate my first “real" blog to them. I mean, this whole blogging thing should have a point every once in a while, right? If you love animals you will read this.

The problem with wearing fur occurs with the fact that helpless living creatures must be killed for people’s interpretation of fashion and warmth. Maybe when these people wear their lovely fur they should think about this real life story:

When undercover investigators made their way into Chinese fur farms recently, they found many animals are still alive and struggling desperately when workers flip them onto their backs or hang them up by their legs or tails to skin them. When workers on these farms begin to cut the skin and fur from an animals legs, the free limbs kick and writhe. Workers stomp on the necks and heads of animals who struggle too hard to allow a clean cut. When the fur is finally peeled off over the animals’ heads, their naked bloodied bodies are thrown into a pile of those who have gone before them. Some still alive, breathing in ragged gasps and blinking slowly. Some of the animals hearts are still beating five to ten minutes after they are skinned. One investigator recorded a skinned raccoon dog on the heap of carcasses who had enough strength to lift his bloodied head and stare into the camera.

Somebody is wearing that raccoon dog right now.


There are a couple of ways to obtain animals that will be used for fur. One of them is through trapping. Animals suffer a great deal and are often left to suffer in traps for days. Many animals have been known to chew off their own legs or feet to get out of the traps. These animals bleed to death days later or are picked up by predators that otherwise would not have killed them. In order to kill these animals with out damaging their fur, trappers strangle them and beat them to death. A bullet wound hole would be simply unacceptable in a fur coat. This way of thinking is very egotistical. For a human to think that he has control over every other living thing whether he harms it or not is just another day in the life for a fur trapper. Millions of animals are trapped each year.

A couple of different types of traps are used. The steel jaw trap is most common. Animals step into it and it snaps down, crushing and mutilating their legs. They can not escape and they often try and try in complete fear, only to eventually die of blood loss, heat exhaustion, frostbite and so on.

There are also pole traps. Pole traps are set up high in trees and they pull the animal up in the air with a steel jaw trap like attachment. These animals hang in the air suffering. The point of these is so that animals are not eaten by predators before the hunters return- sometimes days later. Conibear traps are also used. They crush the animals’ necks with ninety pounds of pressure per square inch. Animals suffer for three to eight minutes while suffocating in these traps.

The animal fur farm is another way of acquiring all of the fur used. Eighty five percent of the fur industry’s skins come from animals that live in these fur farms. Animals are kept by “fur farmers” where they stay in cages that they can barely move in. These cages provide almost no protection in winter environments and often animals are left with no water because it freezes. Ranch raised foxes are kept in cages that are 2.5 feet square and minks are kept in cages that are 1 foot by 3 feet with about four animals in each cage. Living in these cages causes the animals to becoming psychologically disturbed. They often bite off their own body parts and circle constantly out of fear and boredom. Many of these animals are biologically inclined to live on 1,000's of acres of land. Foxes and raccoons have even been found to eat each other because of their reaction to such a crowded confined way of life. That is if you want to consider this a way of life. These animals are being born only to exist in a hell that they were not meant to be in. Not only do these animals live in miserable ways, but they die miserably also.

There is no federal humane slaughter law that protects animals in fur factory farms and killing methods are gruesome. Small animals are crammed into boxes and poisoned with hot, unfiltered engine exhaust. This method does not always completely kill the animals and they often wake up during the skinning process. Some animals are electrocuted to death and others have their necks snapped .


Some people think that getting the fur that they wear off of a fur farm is better than using the fur of a trapped wild animal. This is wrong. There is nothing better about fur farms because animals acquire painful psychological problems, not to mention the physiological problems that occur because of inbreeding for certain color patterns in the furs. Yes, fur farmers do have to follow the fur trends. This means conforming their fur farm animals to producing the proper fur colors. To achieve this goal the farmers use selective inbreeding. The consequences cause even more detrimental affects on the animals. For example, the Hedlund white mink is a genetic mutant that was created on a fur farm. This mutated animal will lose her hearing at thirty days of age because of a genetic defect....this type of mutation is non-existent in the wild, but very standard on fur farms.

I take the Utilitatarian point of view on this case. I think that the suffering of the animals outweighs the potential benefits of people wearing fur. I think that it is a sin to put vanity before life. The problem here is that people refuse to become educated on this issue. Everyone leads their own little selfish life and refuses to acknowledge the real issues. Wild animals have just as much worth as a pet in our home....so when PETA begs the question “Would You Wear Your Own Dog?"....my answer is NO.


Raccoon Dogs...a very common source of fur.