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“Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.”
– Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher
So many of us live our lives with a healthy respect for tradition. There is value to it. It preserves our culture, binds us together, guides our morality, and creates stability. Like yin and yang, there is another side. Tradition can impede progress, perpetuate exclusion and discrimination, sustain harmful practices, and decimate clarity due to blind adherence. It therefore must be said that just because we have done something in the past doesn’t mean we should keep doing it.
The first use of fur dates back 120,000 years. In ancient Egypt, it was worn as a status symbol, which carried through to the Middle Ages in Europe.1 With the advent of global exploration, the fur trade flourished during the Renaissance via trade routes spanning North America, Russia, and Scandinavia. Fur was considered highly fashionable in Europe and North America through the 19th century. Its mass production began in the early 20th century, increasing its popularity. Fortunately, the past 100 years have brought greater awareness about the ethics and ramifications of fur production. It’s time we shed fur and move on.
A Material for the Ages
Fur is composed of two parts: hair and leather. The hair includes underfur (a softer, denser, and shorter layer of hairs closer to the skin) and guard hairs (longer, coarser layer of hairs that extend above the underfur). The underfur provides thermal insulation by trapping air and retaining body heat, while guard hairs protect the underfur from moisture and dirt. Over millennia, fur has seen a myriad of uses. It provides warmth when worn facing inward, or outward as an exterior lining, which is considered more fashionable. It is used for coats and jackets, hats and gloves, scarves and stoles, trimmings, and linings, as well as rugs, throws, and furniture upholstery. More frivolous uses include trophies, wall hangings, and arts and crafts.
Fur is prized as it offers an attractive blend of properties:2
Fur is made from a variety of animals, including beaver, chinchilla, coyote, fox, mink, rabbit, raccoon, and sable, as well as dogs and cats. Each offers a unique texture, color, and aesthetic appeal. Fur from a beaver is durable, that of a fox is luxurious, while fur from a mink offers a high sheen. Mink is the most farmed fur animal, accounting for 85% of all animals raised for their fur. 50% of mink farms are in Europe. China is the largest fur consumer and producer globally, accounting for half of total production, with its domestic market purchasing 80% of fur garments produced in the country. 90% of animals used for fur come from factory farms.3
The size of a ‘pelt’ (skin with hair) can vary depending on the species as well as the individual animal. Fur is priced based on its density, softness, luster, length, uniformity, weight, and color or pattern. This creates dramatic variance in the prices of fur garments. A high-end mink coat costs between US$1,000 and US$50,000, while a sable coat, considered among the most luxurious, can cost up to $200,000. Altogether, the global fur trade is $40 billion in size.4
The process of making fur involves several steps:
Farming & Trapping: Animals are raised on fur farms in cages and fed a controlled diet, or trapped in the wild using snares, body-grip traps, or leg-hold traps.
Harvesting & Skinning: Animals are ‘harvested’ when their fur is in prime condition. The pelt is carefully removed, often by hand, to ensure minimal damage. Sometimes, animals are frozen to ease this process.
Processing & Sorting: Pelts are cleaned to remove blood, dirt, and debris and then tanned with chemicals to prevent decay, increase durability, and maintain flexibility. After tanning, pelts are stretched and dried. Some pelts are dyed to achieve the desired color or pattern. Pelts are then graded and sorted based on quality, size, color, and other characteristics.
Cutting & Finishing: Pelts are cut according to patterns required for garments or accessories. Cut pieces are then sewn to create the final product. Fur garments are lined with fabric, and final adjustments are made such as trimming or adding decorative elements.
Image Credit: Igor Batenev/Shutterstock
The Fur Trap
The true cost of a fur coat goes beyond the money paid for it, causing irreparable harm to animals, people, and the planet.
Animals
To make one fur coat requires up to 12 beavers, 15 wolves, 30 raccoons, 40 foxes, 80 minks, or 120 chinchillas.5 To cut costs, animals are packed into small cages. Confinement is particularly distressing to minks, who occupy up to 2,500 acres of wetland habitat in the wild. This anguish leads minks to self-mutilate, biting their skin, tails, and feet and frantically pace and circle endlessly.6 Foxes, raccoons, and other animals cannibalize cage mates in response to high-density confinement. In the wild, birds, cats, dogs, and other animals, including endangered species, are inadvertently crippled or killed by traps. Trappers call these animals “trash kills” because they have no economic value. The American Veterinary Medical Association reports that trash kills can account for up to 67% of the total catch thus posing a major threat to wildlife and causing unintended ecological consequences.7 Regulations require that traps be checked daily to weekly, leaving these animals suffering for extended periods.8 The steel jaw trap is considered so barbaric that it has been banned in over 100 countries. The trap’s jaws slam on an animal’s limb, mutilating the animal’s foot or leg. Trapped animals that survive the blood loss, dehydration, hypothermia, infection, or gangrene may be killed by predators. A pole trap is a form of steel-jaw trap that hoists the animal in the air, hanging by the caught appendage until the trapper kills them. Conibear traps crush animals’ necks, applying 40 kilograms of pressure per square inch, causing the animal to suffocate in three to eight minutes. Factory farms don’t fare better, as animals are killed using methods that prevent blood from staining their pelts. They are electrocuted with rods pushed into their bodies, poisoned with strychnine, or gassed. Investigative footage by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) of the China fur trade reveals animal cruelty at factory farms that is shocking and difficult to see.9
People
Workers in the industry face a potent mix of health risks. Exposure to animal dander, fur, and feces can lead to respiratory problems.10 Thirty-three toxic chemicals banned across Europe are used to process fur in China.11 The surfactants, solvents, acids, tannins, fungicides, dyes, and bleaches used in fur dressing can cause both acute and chronic health issues for workers, ranging from skin and eye irritation to cancer.12 Fur skins are dressed in formaldehyde and chromium, both listed as carcinogens and toxic to humans. Seeing animals kept in poor conditions and slaughtered can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression.13 This is compounded by low wages, poor working conditions,14 and a lack of job security due to fluctuations in demand and increasing regulatory pressure.15 Workers are also at risk of contracting zoonotic diseases, which can be transmitted from animals to humans.16 Fur farms densely pack minks in close contact with one another. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Denmark ‘culled’ 17 million minks in response to outbreaks at 200 mink farms.17 As of late 2020, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Six countries, namely Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy, and the United States of America have reported SARS-CoV-2 in farmed minks.”18 According to Eurogroup for Animals, fur-farmed species could act as ‘mixing vessels’ for human, avian, and swine influenza viruses, promoting the emergence of new pandemic viruses.19
Planet
Animal fur is not green. It is energy-intensive, highly polluting, and detrimental to the environment. To produce one fox fur coat, requires one ton (1,000 kg) of feed, while a single mink coat requires three tons (3,000 kg).20 The energy required to create a real fur garment is approximately 20 times a synthetic one. The carbon footprint of 1 kg of mink fur is 31 times higher than the same weight of cotton, 26 times higher than that of acrylic, and 25 times higher than that of polyester.21 Each animal produces approximately 20 kg of feces, resulting in millions of tons of waste annually based on the total number of animals slaughtered. Animal waste contains high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous, the most common form of water pollution in the United States. Air pollution arises from gasses released by animal waste, as well as the disposal of animal carcasses by incineration, a common method. Emissions from mink fur are 150 times higher than the same quantity of polyester, 215 times higher than that of cotton, and 271 times higher than that of acrylic.22 Air pollutants include carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrochloric acid (HCl), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dioxins, particulates and heavy metals. The European Union called tanning “a potentially pollution-intensive industry”, while the World Bank rates fur dressing and dyeing industry as one of the five worst industries for toxic metal pollution to the land. A 2011 study by CE Delft on European mink fur across 18 environmental themes revealed that fur had a higher environmental impact compared to other textiles.23 Chemicals used in dressing and dyeing processes listed by the U.S. government as toxic include aluminum, ammonia, chlorine, chlorobenzene, copper, ethylene glycol, lead, methanol, naphthalene, sulfuric acid, toluene, and zinc.24 Contrary to common belief, fur is not easily biodegradable following processing. In fact, chemical treatments are applied specifically to prevent fur from rotting. The Fur Commission states that, “After processing, fur pelts are soft and pliable, and the natural beauty of the fur will last for decades.”25 Needless to say, something that will ‘last for decades’ is not easily biodegradable.
A Finer Fur
Replicating the mix of properties that fur offers (Table 1) is no easy feat. A mink coat contains over 600 million individual hairs (that’s 24,000 hairs per cm2), which must be duplicated in an artificial fur product. Artificial fur (also called fake fur, faux fur, or mock fur) was first introduced in 1929 and composed of shredded hair from the South American alpaca. Acrylic polymers transformed the development of artificial fur by the mid-1950s, leading to the innovation we see today. While alternatives have improved in texture and appearance and are less costly, they face issues with biodegradability, sometimes faring worse. Most synthetic fur today is a source of profits for the petrochemical industry and contains microplastics in addition to chemicals such as dioxins, nitrous oxide, hydrogen cyanide, flame retardants, antimicrobials, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and other pollutants.26 It is clear that more work must be done.
Fortunately, innovators are mounting a challenge to creating fur without the animal using several compelling next-gen approaches:
Further On
Growing consumer resistance to fur has emerged globally, and for good reason. Younger consumers are leading the shift in attitude.27 The United Kingdom became the first country to ban fur farming in 2000. Israel became the first to ban the sale of fur in the fashion industry in 2021. Over 20 countries have implemented bans on fur farming to date, though some haven’t yet gone into effect. In the United States, California, which accounts for a quarter of fur sales in the U.S., became the first state to ban the manufacture and sale of new fur starting in 2023. Other countries such as Switzerland have implemented stringent animal welfare laws that effectively make fur farming unviable. More than 1,500 fashion brands have committed to go fur-free, including Armani, Burberry, Kering (owner of Gucci), Prada, and Versace.28 As a result, the slaughter of fur animals globally has fallen from 140 million in 2014 to 42 million in 2021.29 Yet, fur farming persists, with ominous outcomes for animals, people, and the planet.
In Disney’s classic tale, 101 Dalmatians, the antagonist Cruella de Vil exhibited an obsession for Dalmatian fur, which ultimately contributed to her demise. It is easy to understand the allure of fur due to its attractive properties in the early days of human existence for surviving in a cold, harsh environment. But those times didn’t offer the comforts of modern technology and millennia of progress, nor did they have factory farms that brought untold animal suffering, cruel traps made from steel, processing plants with chemicals that impact workers’ health, and cause environmental damage from their runoff. It’s time to move past a legacy that no longer serves us. Better alternatives exist; we must use them and continue to push the boundaries to create superior ones. In these modern times, perhaps Stella McCartney puts it best with her conclusion, “Fur has no place in any compassionate society and today its use is unnecessary and inexcusable. Plainly, fur is immoral, cruel, and barbaric.”30
Smithsonian Magazine
Britannica
Eurogroup for Animals
Fashion and Law Journal
Lapham’s Quarterly
PETA
Fur Free Alliance
PETA
Sentient Media
American Lung Association
Material Innovation Initiative
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Human Rights Watch
International Labour Organization (ILO)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
NBC News
PETA
Eurogroup for Animals
Animal Issues
Humane Society International
Humane Society International
Material Innovation Initiative
The Humane Society of the United States
Fur Commission USA
Material Innovation Initiative
Vogue Business
Fashion and Law Journal
Material Innovation Initiative
The Guardian
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