The Ugly Side Of Humanity; Fur Is Back In Fashion

By James Donahue

September 2004

Fashion designers are pushing fur laced attire this year and the public is buying without a conscience, a British report reveals.

The BBC’s Money Program reports that sales in fur have risen 35 percent this year and British furriers report a massive surge in sales since 2002. In spite of efforts by anti-fur lobby groups and a ban against fur production in the UK, business in that country is booming.

The young people are demanding furs and argue they have no problem with the killing of animals, assuming that the mink, muskrat, fox, raccoons and other creatures destroyed to produce the new fashions are done so in a humane way.

They say the moral objections to fur “are old hat,” and ask if people can eat meat from slaughtered animals, why can’t they wear the leathers and furs from animal hides.

Obviously these youth have no concept of what goes on in the rural areas where trappers, mink farmers and beef ranchers work their trade. Perhaps they don’t care. There is nothing humane about the way animals are slaughtered.

The trick is to herd the animals into a pen, then push them through a ramp where someone uses a sharp knife to cut their throat. Wild animals are shot. Then the cow, pig, lamb or wild deer is hung by its back haunches on a meat hook while it slowly bleeds to death.

The highly touted and farm-oriented 4-H program is a skillful brainwashing program for preparing farm youth to accept the slaughter of their “pet” project animals each summer for money. Each 4-H youth that raises a cow, sheep, goat or hog, competes for trophies. Then the animals are auctioned to local businesses that donate heavily to assure nice cash profits. Thus the children, through group and social pressure, are forced to surrender for slaughter the living creature they raised and loved for nearly a year.

After a few consecutive years of doing this, and building a nice nest egg of cash for college, these kids eventually learn to kill farm animals without conscience. The objective thus turns to money.

Wild animals are trapped in the wild for their furs. That means they are captured in a trap and struggle in great pain for hours if not days until the trapper finds and kills them. He immediately skins the still warm carcass. Trapping is done like this on purpose. The fur loses its value if removed from a cold dead animal.

Mink farmers say they gas their animals before skinning them. But if that is so, how can they skin a large number of animals still warm? I used to live near a mink farmer. While I can’t prove it, I heard stories about how the animals were sometimes skinned while still alive in the rush to assure a quality pelt.

The British writer suggested that the interest in furs is brought on by an “insensitive new generation” of not only young buyers but fashion designers. But I believe the sickness goes much deeper. Humans possess a barbaric flaw in their makeup.

They seem to enjoy killing living things, both large and small. They even seem to like to kill each other.

Even though fake fur has been perfected so it is impossible to see the difference, this new wave of consumers wants the real thing and is willing to pay the cost.