Fur coats
 

OK so winter has arrived, it is cold, windy and very wet and the fur coats are out of the wardrobe. I am not talking about imitation fur but real fur. When we moved here 4 years ago I was astonished to see people doing their supermarket shop, window shopping and walking on the promenade in their fur coats. This year there seems to be an increase in the numbers, not only including the older generation but the younger generation as well.

Does this happen all over Spain the wearing of fur coats?

Re: Fur coats
 

In Madrid it seems everybody's wife has real fur coat. I don't think they stopped and started again like they did in England. I think they ignored the animal cruelty furore of the last few decades and just carried on.

Re: Fur coats
 

I don't recall seeing any here (rural Andalucia). Is it very much worse than wearing leather?

Re: Fur coats
 

Or eating meat?

Re: Fur coats
 

Just the question that sprung to mind when I saw the thread header.
Do we breed animals purely for shoe-leather and coats? Or is it a by-product from using animals for food?

Re: Fur coats
 

I don't think the wearing of leather jackets ever disappeared in the UK. Although sheepskin coats aren't quite as numerous as they seemed to be in the 70s/80s.

Re: Fur coats
 

As you say leather coats and such are generally by products, from animals bred for meat.
Fur coats are usually from purpose bred animals often kept in very unpleasant conditions, compared to those bred for meat.

Re: Fur coats
 

Lots of moral issues here.

Is leather OK because it is a by-product of meat production?
If so does that make a fur coat OK if the animal it came from is eaten?
Is the eating of meat ethical anyway? No-one needs to eat it, only for pleasure.

Re: Fur coats
 

Yes but one question could be would "you" eat mink meat or fox meat?

Re: Fur coats
 

If I were hungry, of course. I've eaten grey squirrel, and that's pretty good. Come to think of it, were it cooked properly, I'd try rat.

Meat is meat is meat, by and large.

I've had people tell me that certain fish taste muddy, but I've never found it so.

Re: Fur coats
 

Yeah... We just had that debate on another thread. I would;-) It depends how hungry I was or if it was the local tradition etc. I have no problem with eating prawns...a couple of hundred of them a year given the chance. Maybe 4 or 5 chickens. And last week in spite of severe doubts at the morality of it all I bought a Kilo of codling for just over 3 euros. But I eat less than half a pig/cow/sheep put together (as it were). Which of those critters big and small had most right to live? I.e 20 prawns ... 20X more cruel/greedy than a very small piece of cow?

Re: Fur coats
 

The more sentient, the less right you have to kill it.

Re: Fur coats
 

They should wash their hands :eek:

Re: Fur coats
 

I think a lot of the time it's stupid people repeating stuff they have been told without ever applying critical reasoning.

Re: Fur coats
 

We could argue all day on those issues, however the first step that I think most ppl. would agree with, is that in both cases the animals concerned should be kept in reasonably acceptable conditions.
Within the EU quite a lot of steps have and still are being taken to improve the lot of animals kept for meat production.
However having seen behind the scenes in the fur trade, I think it still has a very long way to go, but as far as many are concerned it seems to be a case of out of sight, out of mind.
Maybe most who don't indulge themselves in fur products, possibly feel satisfied that they are already doing their little bit to help, whilst those who do, probably don't really care at all. :(

Even bil's flies probably have a better lifestyle, until such time as he brings their time on the planet to a somewhat sudden and premature end, while those others which succumb to his evil chemical weapons attacks probably don't have to suffer too long. ;)