It's alive

[stephbg]

This is my cat, Cally, in the middle of a pile of bunnies:





She's nestled in the middle of my fur rug, which in lieu of artificial heating has recently been keeping me warm and snuggly in my icy cave house. The fur rug has been kicking around in various forms for over a decade now, and is a home-made patchwork of rabbit, fox, and squirrel (no moose). With the exception of a couple of rabbit pelts, most of the fur was sourced from second-hand clothing. I did not personally torture any cute little bunnies.

I'd be interested in people's opinions of my staggeringly non-pc fur rug, even from people who've known about it for a while (or at least heard about it a long time ago - I can't imagine this information has been preying on anyone's mind). Do you find the idea offensive? Cool? Sexy? Monstrous? About as exciting as a leather jacket? Other?

I did come against a definitive NO response when I tried to deliver a bag of fur scraps to the Cat Haven for use as cat toys. My confident I'm-helping-albeit-in-a-surprising-way smile was withered rapidly by their frosty response "We do not support the fur trade". Brrrrr.

Comments

[delicious-irony.livejournal.com]

Wow, did you make that? Would you make me one?

I have some antique fur...

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

All I did was unpick the jackets and throws, then roughly stitch them together by hand. At one point I used a mountain of binding to glue the lot to an old sheet, and I've patched and extended it over and over. It's hard stuff to work; either the leather is strong which makes it hard to pierce, or it's thin and tears easily.

[catundra.livejournal.com]

There's nothing like recycling. I am not in favour of fur, however, in this case you are lengthening the life of the reason they died - much better IMO than binning the original articles - in a practical and useful way.

[leecetheartist.livejournal.com]

Cool!

[fred-mouse.livejournal.com]

I find fur to be barely more offensive than leather, and I'm sure I've worn many many leather shoes over the years (and still do, and buy them for my children). The only difference that I see between fur and leather is that the leather can be seen as a byproduct of the meat industry (I have no idea if the same animals are used), whereas I have to assume that the fur animals are not eaten.

plus, my first response to your description of where it came from was to wonder whether there were still secondhand furs going at any sensible kind of price, and if so, whether I could source enough to have my own fur rug.

but then, I buy cage eggs, so I'm obviously a dreadful person

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

The price fluctuates a lot. They got expensive even at Good Sammy's a few years ago when fake fur became so trendy some real fur started to sneak through (lots of Chinese rabbit I discovered). I haven't looked in the shops lately, but the Quokka has a few medium-expensive ones ATM.

As for edible, I doubt the red (hopefully feral) foxes were eaten by anyone (although the carcasses might have gone for pet food), and I'm unsure about farmed bunnies being processed for meat, but I'd think it likely. It would be a hell of a protein resource to just throw away. I did find out that almost all farmed rabbit fur in Australia went into the production of felt for Akubra hats.

I expect the squirrel is probably the worst, karmically speaking. Or the silver foxes (in the collection but not in the rug). The provenance there is unknown.

[wolflullaby.livejournal.com]

I love fur. I also love bones, teeth and other animal bits (I want to learn taxidermy, but am not sure I would have the stomach for it). I was vegetarian for 9 years - and vegan for some of that - during which time I refused to own fur even if sourced second hand. Now I am an omnivore again, and will happily purchase fur, but only second hand. Earlier in the year I bought a goats skin and what seems to be kangaroo (I think?) from an op shop. They are both fairly small and not complete. I am planning on using them in art projects. ^____^ I wouldn't buy fur new though.