Watch the fur fly...

Now, I'm going to try my hardest to be sensible in this post and not come across as some kind of Cruella DeVil antichrist. I've been thinking about an advert I saw in Vogue a few months back for a while now, which introduced me to Origin Assured fur. The idea is that buying Origin Assured fur means that you know that the fur has been farmed under strict conditions and guidelines as applicable to the country of origin. Now, to me, this is a brilliant initiative. I own fur, I wear fur, I love fur. There, I said it. I never feel afraid to say that, but somehow I always feel I should feel afraid to say it and I know people hate me for it.
I would count myself as someone who really loves animals (I can hear the sneers of hypocrite); but I still eat meat. I still wear leather. I still wear sheepskin. And I still wear fur. And I don't clearly see where the line is drawn between fur being crueler than leather. People don't utter their disgust at people wearing Uggs, but will happily rant a tirade against a fur. And I'm quite happy for them to do that, as long as they have a logical reason, because to be honest I think for a lot of people the reason that a fox is cuter than a sheep is a logical reason. Which is absurd. I personally used to hate the idea of fur, but when I thought about why, I realized I'd jumped on the bandwagon before really thinking about it. I've seen the gruesome programmes, made myself watch the fur being torn from the animals back like carpet from floorboards again and again and again. I had to make myself watch them to be sure that's something I wanted to be affiliated with. But I too have seen the programmes about battery farmed chickens being kicked about like footballs, fed until they're too fat to walk and never see the light of day and that's something I would definitely not want to be linked to. But I'm happy to eat eggs, so long as I know they are free range. Just like I would be happy to wear fur, so long as I knew it had been farmed in an ethical way.
I know people will always have a problem with fur, and in many ways I can see why. I think many people have more of an issue with fur than leather and other goods because they believe fur doesn't offer any bi-products; which isn't actually completely true, a lot of the meat used from animals farmed for fur is used in pet food, and their body fat can be used as oil. I know that there are some cases of the most obscene cruelty in fur farms, but that can be said about so many practices involving animals; battery farms, intensive farming, the exotic pet trade, zoos... the list goes on. You can't stop people wearing fur, just like you can't stop people from going to zoos or eating cheap meat. So instead of avoiding the matter completely and campaigning about something that will never falter, I think it should be commended that someone has taken the initiative to set up a label that sets the standards in fur farming, for a better life for those animals in fur farms; not just because they're cuter and cuddlier than their bovine friends, but because they deserve a standard of living too.
Image credits here