goodbye baby rabbits

[devi]

So yes, the white fluffy scarf.

I used to have a Russian student called Vita, who was smart, funny, outspoken and generally brilliant, though a complete fool for her exploitative twat of a boyfriend in that way that some bright young girls can be, which made me want to shake her sometimes. When she came back to Oxford at the start of term she'd bring me something Russian. Usually caviar or similar. One first day of term, though, she asked, "Are you in Greenpeace?"

What? "...No." (I was when I was a teenager but I let it lapse.)

"See, I got you this," she said, producing the white fluffy scarf and explaining that it would be perfectly acceptable in Russia but on her way back here she'd been having doubts as to whether someone in the UK would want to wear it. It is your basic knitted scarf, but trimmed with so much luxuriant rabbit fur that you can barely see the wool bits. The fur feels amazing. It is a beautiful thing, and I thanked her, but I don't want to wear it.

I know this is not consistent. I'm not a vegan; I wear leather quite happily; I eat meat, though I avoid factory-farmed stuff when I can; but the idea of wearing fur squicks me out. I have heard grim things about the Russian fur industry, but haven't had the stomach to actually look into it. But the scarf sits there and looks at me, and putting it in the bin feels wrong too because then the rabbits would have Died In Vain. (I know, I know.)

I guess I'll just charity-shop it, but I find it odd that this particular thing seems so loaded for me and I don't seem to apply the same principle to all similar things. Is it just that I've been programmed by awareness campaigns about fur and they haven't had any about (eg) shoes? I'm curious as to how others feel about it. And does anyone else want the damn thing? (ETA: this is it. OK, you can see lots of wool in that picture, but wrapped around your neck it's all Tilda-Swinton-as-The-White-Witch.)

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I am not squicked by rabbit fur. I am not sure why - I do object to farmed mink, say, for a variety of reasons - but rabbits to me are Not The Same Thing. I kept pet rabbits as a child, so it's not exactly a lack of sentimentality *g*, but I also knew them as familiar garden pests, like mice and rats and voles and so on.

(Whether I'd actually want it would depend largely on what it looked like!)

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

I'll take it off your hands for you! Looks nice :)

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Given I happily eat rabbit, and aim for nose to tail eating as far as possible, I'd actually feel weird about NOT being comfortable wearing the skin of the same...yes, fur farm meat doesn't necessarally go towards human consumption, but it almost certainly goes towards at least pet food, simply because it's uneconomic to pay to dispose of a biproduct if you can find a profitable use for it.

[alfaguru.livejournal.com]

Reminds me that one of my old girlfriends actually had a wolf fur coat, bought for her by her wealthy parents. We looked an odd couple, I'm sure, what with me being in studenty duffel coat and doc martens.

At the time I was a vegetarian, though not a very conscientious one obviously!

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

I have a real fur coat (rabbit) -- free, second hand, found in a cupboard -- but UK weather seldom justifies it.

[skorpionuk.livejournal.com]

Hmm, no, I can't quite find the underlying logic there... unless it is just that you're more consciously aware of the anti-fur lobbying effort. Also, it is now uncommon to see anyone wearing fur, which is both for practical reasons and the above lobbying - I seem to remember women in fur coats having cans of paint dumped on them! Neither wearing leather nor eating meat have so far elicited such responses in public as far as I've heard.

The reason that fur was picked on over and above other types of animal products was due to their status as "luxury" items, i.e. worn by the well-off. Animals dying "senselessly" for reasons that can be presented as non-essential/frivolous is an easy argument to make...