Although I do eat meat, I do not wear fur, because, while there is no substitute for a steak, there are substitutes for mink coats (cloth coats, jackets).
Look. I don’t really object to fur in a sincere way. I think it looks fantastic. The other day I was walking into a dive bar and saw a woman wearing a mink coat walking out, and I wanted to become Fellini so I could make a movie featuring such a scene. But I didn’t. Maybe you have a better shot at that than I do if you are someone who knows how to work a basic video camera. The only sadness I felt upon seeing such a thing was the sadness that I was not a film director.
Suffice to say; I’m really not opposed to fur. At all. But I still don’t feel quite entirely right about wearing it.
However, when I mention this, a lot of people say, “but you eat meat!” I do. I eat a whole ton of meat, pretty un-apologetically. I can debate the best steakhouse in Manhattan with you for a surprisingly long length of time. And yet…
I do that because I cannot find an adequate substitute for them. A vegan/vegetarian substitute for a good steak is 100% impossible to find. I know, I know, you found one, once, kind of. No. No, your thing is made out of tofu. It is shaped like a steak. It might have some sort of brown sauce smeared on it to make it resemble a steak.
That is not a steak. I am not fooled by the fact that it bears a (very) passing resemblance to one.
It tastes absolutely nothing like a steak.
There are not yet perfectly indistinguishable substitutes for steak. Or chicken. Or bacon, because God knows vegetarian bacon is an insult to people who love bacon everywhere. Or any kind of meat, really. They may look the same, but they will not taste the same.
Coats do not have a taste.
So, why is wearing fur worse than eating meat? Let’s examine the answers.
Esperanza Gutierrez: “I can relate to this. I don’t have many qualms about eating meat to a certain degree, but Furs is another story. For me, there is nothing attractive in furs themselves, it actually grosses me out, and it doesn’t even matter if it is faux or not. The same thing can be said about leathers. Maybe it is because I hear all those stories about animals being killed for just their fur, tusks, or fins and the rest of it going to waste.”
Tania: “I feel similarly. If I skinned and ate a rabbit or a bunch of rabbits and then made a coat from their skins, I could justify it. But I don’t think most animals whose furs end up as coats also have their meat end up as food, and the meat is the bulk of the animal. (Which is how I justify eating meat and not caring about its skin and not wearing fur. But I do have a mink stole that used to belong to my grandmother).”
Jennifer Bunner: “In my opinion, wearing down is the same as wearing fur. Plus, according to the logic in this article, you shouldn’t wear it since there are good substitutes for it. Full disclosure: I’m a vegetarian, and I have pet chickens and ducks.”
Eileen: “I get your point, but I think that a better question is: Do you wear leather? Meat is not the same as fur, for the reasons you explained, but leather and fur are pretty much the same things.”
Alle: “I get your point, and it’s a case well made, but I disagree.
I guess my thing is that in the end, an animal is dead. Whether you then eat it or dance around with it (I don’t know why you would, but you know) or wear it doesn’t make any difference. I’ve got leather boots on right now, which I don’t see being any different than a mink coat. Is it okay to wear the boots but not the coat, and why? Because minks are cute but fuck cows?
Also, down coats are very warm. They are a good alternative to fur! But down coats are filled with feathers. Those feathers are pulled out of geese and ducks while they’re alive (sometimes) or from birds that are killed and then dipped in boiling water to make the feathers easier to get out (other times). So it’s all pretty gross, honestly.
So I guess the only thing to do now is for everyone to move to places that are nice and warm all the time, and then we wouldn’t need this stuff to keep from freezing to death every winter. I’ve just solved every problem!”
Street Hawk: “No, shallow is blaming people for taking part in the cycle of life. Life lives off of life, no matter if you’re eating plants or animals. Blame Mother Nature, or God, or evolution, whatever, but don’t think your position has any moral high ground vis-a-vis life. In fact, there is a good argument to be made that you are contributing to overpopulation and denying life itself. I know, it’s terrible that we all die and life has to feed off of life, but it’s just something you’ll have to deal with.
Mass production farms, inhumane treatment of animals, non-free range animals, not using the entire animal, such as that jerks in Africa who kill elephants for their ivory tusks and leave the carcass to rot, these are the battles that I will wage. Trying to go against the very essence of nature is one which you will not win and one where you’ll be a hypocrite because you slaughter so many plants, who many biologists argue do indeed have feelings on a lower level. Don’t blame me. I just live here.”
AnimalSupportProject: “Of course not! Does a plant nurse their young? Does a plant bleed, have feelings? You people will say anything to justify killing a sentient being, but you can NEVER win this argument. Educate yourself!!!!! Be more, elevate yourself to a higher standard instead of being the lower form of our species!”
Street Hawk: “Since when is nursing a prerequisite for feelings and sentience? Plants do have feelings, albeit at a lower level than mammals, fowl, amphibians, insects, etc. I’m not trying to win an argument. There simply isn’t one. Every breath you take kills hundreds of microscopic organisms. The Jains, quite aware of this, actually take every step carefully so not to step on insects. It seems that you only care about things that are cute and cuddly. Educate yourself, indeed. Live in the wild for a bit—your view of how the world will change. Nature is not very motherly. She is short, brutish, and nasty, to put it in the words of Thomas Hobbes. I am not familiar with any world or condition where life doesn’t feed off of life. You should be more consistent. Don’t you think that the insect you stepped on this morning, severing its leg from its thorax, suffered from that? Some consistency, please. Don’t blame me. I just live here.”
Jana: “100% agree with everything you said here. I am on the other end of the spectrum from most of these people here; I am a hunter. I use all of my animals and usually end up giving the hides/ furs away because I just feel wrong wearing them/ making them into rugs/ mounting them on a wall. But hunting for your meat is truly a beautiful thing.”
Atlas: “The main reason that the meat from most fur-bearing animals is not consumed by humans is because it tastes terrible. However, that meat can and is used to make some pet foods. Also, the fat from fur-bearing animals is a base ingredient for other products; mink oil is perhaps the first one to come to mind. There’s not much that does not get used in some way.”
Only1TalkingSense: “I am glad that you are not against fur because, as you said, you eat meat and both types of farming follow the exact same principle. But I have to disagree that there is a good alternative to real fur.
Sure, faux fur looks the same from a distance, but it does not close up. It is also made out of petroleum-based substances, which probably kills more animals indirectly than goes into making a fur coat. But the main reasons you cannot replace real fur are for the feel of it (I challenge you to find a material softer and nicer to touch than a chinchilla fur!) and for its wind-blocking properties.
A little side notes: if you eat meat, the animal is consumed straight away and then gone. But an animal’s fur will last for decades and can be passed down from generation to generation.”
Gan G: “All animal use is unnecessary, so it’s not morally justifiable, period. You’d better stop making lame excuses like these. It’s so easy to go vegan now.”
Street Hawk: “Says you. And I don’t need a moral justification to eat meat if I’m not causing the animal to suffer or live penned up. I’m just taking part in the cycle of life. Sorry that you don’t like life, but that’s the way it is. There are moral ways to treat animals, much more so than the tiger hunting a gazelle out in the wild, who then eats the gazelle alive after he catches it. How immoral is that tiger? We’re all going to die. We all live and participate in a world where it is very fundamental that life feeds off life to survive, even if that life is a plant and not an animal. I don’t make the rules, and I hate unnecessary suffering. I do not hate death or the fact that life needs life to live. These just are. If the only reason for killing an animal is its fur, you better really need that fur for your survival, or you are being an asshole. But if it’s something pork, beef, or fowl-based, then we should use that fur or hide or feathers so that we respect the whole animal who has died so that we may live. One day we will die so others may live, and if you don’t put your dead ass in a casket, the worms, and other creatures will enjoy you, too.”
MR: “I missed this one earlier. Jamie, please close your eyes. I don’t know – a woman wearing nice fur on occasion? Our meat comes from a whole industry of slaughter nastiness. But we eat meat. I like the way a woman looks in nice fur on a special occasion. One is no more human calculated than the other.”
Street Hawk: “My meat comes from a small farm in South Central Ohio that is free-range and pesticide-free, and GMO-free. You don’t have to buy meat from Oscar Meyer or your chicken from Tyson, you know.
If the fur-bearing animal is killed just for a fashion statement, then I have no tolerance for that. Killing should only take place as part of the cycle of life, and it should be humane. Using the hide from a cow is moral since otherwise that hide would be thrown aside, and that, I believe, is disrespecting the sacrifice the prey has made for you, one that you will return one day, as long as you don’t get entombed or buried in a metal casket.”
Diner Girl: “I’m 16; when I was 14, I watched Earthlings. I discovered that whether an animal is skinned alive for their fur, breed and murdered for their meat, or tortured at a testing laboratory for us to wear make-up, all animals suffer and die in pain. The horrific acts inflicted on these animals are highly unnecessary. There are always alternatives such as Quorn or faux fur. Yes, Quorn in your eyes may not be as tasty as that steak, but killing an animal for food is a completely selfish act. I am not judging people who eat meat because I once did. I just want people to educate themselves on how we as humans selfishly use animals for our own needs and the horrendous lives the animals lead because of this.”
Street Hawk: “Don’t buy mass-produced products that include animal fat, fur, hides, or meat. By it local from people like the Amish and free-range farms. The Internet will show you to locations of these farms near your home. Better yet, grow your own food and raise your own cattle and chickens for the purpose of life. Then all your concerns about animal cruelty are gone. The prey won’t even know they’re dead. One minute grazing happily, the next, dead. No suffering involved.
And eating meat is no more selfish than breathing the air. One day you, too, will be consumed so that something else may live. Unless you get a casket burial, which I think is stupid because then you’re not contributing to the cycle of life; you’re just becoming an underground real estate.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cook some of the free-range, non-GMO, organic meat that I bought from the very same place that humanely raised the cattle.”
AnimalSupportProject: “The Amish are a group of turd money-grubbers. They are one of the worst groups on this planet. Did you know they control the majority of the puppy mills in this country???? Let’s eat humans! First, if you don’t see anything wrong with eating meat! We will use a bolt shot into your brain to stun you. Oh well, if it doesn’t meet its mark, then hoist you up by one leg and slit your throat. Still not dead?? No matter, we will just start carving you up alive!!
It’s people like you that keep this species at an all-time low because they refuse to enlighten themselves to the truth and the facts of slaughter. It’s all about the money, nothing else. Do you think they really care what YOU like to eat??
It’s fine with me because you losers are dropping like flies from cancers, heart disease, and all types of other illnesses caused by the corpses you eat!”
