Furrries and PETA.

[Hans the husky]

I recently came across this article:
https://www.peta.org/blog/dear-furries-please-dont-wear-real-fur-love-peta/.
I 'm not the type to get butthurt about everything but really, this feels kind of demeaning. I don't even think that real fur- fursuits are a thing. I love the responsd though "Dear Shawna:

Real fur is frowned upon at all furry conventions, in the same sense that leaping in front of speeding locomotives is frowned upon at comic book conventions.

Yours truly,

Samuel Conway, Ph.D.
Chairman and CEO
Anthrocon, Inc."

Then they went on to send a followup asking Furcon to completely ban real fur. God, just leave people alone and go do something usefull instead of bothering us for no reason.

[Jade Sinapu]

 Oh wow.  If PETA got it,  they never would have asked that silly question!

A fur suit made of real fur has been done,  but not in the furry fandom. I think it was a dog suit for a play back in early 1900's?

I think there is a link somewhere deep in this forum about it.

I like the response by Dr. Conway.

[Hans the husky]

Oh wow.  If PETA got it,  they never would have asked that silly question!

A fur suit made of real fur has been done,  but not in the furry fandom. I think it was a dog suit for a play back in early 1900's?

I think there is a link somewhere deep in this forum about it.

I like the response by Dr. Conway.

I heard that some people use fur for small details byt it's just plain ignorance to think that it's normal to use real fur to make fursuits.

[Kobuk]

The topic is lost somewhere in these vast forums, but I'm pretty sure there have been people who made or tried to make ear sets or tails with real animal fur.
People who do use real fur for fursuits or fursuit parts are rare. If they do, they don't "advertise" their accomplishments much for fear of possibly getting ridiculed. And a person showing up at a  furcon with a fursuit part made with real fur or trying to sell something in the dealer's den made with real fur will be looked at in a not so favorable light so to speak. 

Trivia note: If I'm not too mistaken, the Cowardly Lion costume from the original Wizard of Oz movie was made with real lion fur.

P.E.T.A. = People Eating Tasty Animals  I could go for some ham, bacon, and burgers right about now. 

[Hans the husky]

The topic is lost somewhere in these vast forums, but I'm pretty sure there have been people who made or tried to make ear sets or tails with real animal fur.
People who do use real fur for fursuits or fursuit parts are rare. If they do, they don't "advertise" their accomplishments much for fear of possibly getting ridiculed. And a person showing up at a  furcon with a fursuit part made with real fur or trying to sell something in the dealer's den made with real fur will be looked at in a not so favorable light so to speak. 

Trivia note: If I'm not too mistaken, the Cowardly Lion costume from the original Wizard of Oz movie was made with real lion fur.

P.E.T.A. = People Eating Tasty Animals  I could go for some ham, bacon, and burgers right about now. 

I heard that it would be very difficult to make a suit with real fur, plus, with allergy problems, it would most likely be impractical. I wonder what it might look like as I can't find any pictures on line.

On the ethics: I personally eat meat but I don't know how I would feel about killing an amimal for a costume.

[cause the rat]

Years ago I was really big into Halloween. We did a walk through haunt with home made props. One of the props I made was a collection of zombie rats. Modified those big plastic black rats. Cut them up to add bones and guts. with everything done to them you could still easily tell they started out as big black plastic toy rats. Had a website with a lot of how-tos. Through this website I got an email. This lady was running me up a flag pole about using real rats in my Halloween display. "Yes", I said. "I keep them in the freezer. They look better every year." Wish I still had the printouts of those emails. I hate PEDA.

[Hans the husky]

Years ago I was really big into Halloween. We did a walk through haunt with home made props. One of the props I made was a collection of zombie rats. Modified those big plastic black rats. Cut them up to add bones and guts. with everything done to them you could still easily tell they started out as big black plastic toy rats. Had a website with a lot of how-tos. Through this website I got an email. This lady was running me up a flag pole about using real rats in my Halloween display. "Yes", I said. "I keep them in the freezer. They look better every year." Wish I still had the printouts of those emails. I hate PEDA.

Yes, PETA is a bunch of intolerant, holier than thou people who have no idea what they are talking about.

[Jade Sinapu]

So...full disclosure time... my wiskars are porcupine hairs trimmed off or shed. 
But that is all.

What about feather suits??

[Hans the husky]

So...full disclosure time... my wiskars are porcupine hairs trimmed off or shed. 
But that is all.

What about feather suits??

I actually am not anti fur. You have to remember that fur is probably the most effective and enviornmentally friendly materials there is for making warm coats. As long as the animal was treated well and put to good use ( I don't really consider fursuits good use)  Then I have no problem. If I lived in a area with very cold weather and if I could afford it I would probably get a fur coat.

Any product that was taken without harming the animal is also ok. I have a shofar ( a ram horn used as a musical instrument) at home. They simply saw it of the ram without hurting it and the ram grows new horns. As for feathers, it depends  wether they were plucked live or not and wether the rest of the bird was put to good use.

[Kay Alett]

So...full disclosure time... my wiskars are porcupine hairs trimmed off or shed. 
But that is all.

What about feather suits??

Feathers can actually be harvested when a bird is molting and be done humanely. Feathers are actually an advanced kind of material because they take some skill to make if you make fake ones and if you use real ones you need to be familiar with feather patterns so it looks fairly natural. I'm all in favor of using genuine feathers for feathersuits just as long as they are harvested humanely. It's not difficult to find people online with a good reputation.

I personally have no qualms about some certain animal products being used in suit making. Leather for example is a material made from cow hide and cows are slaughtered daily for the beef industry. I can't say no to a good burger. And I think it's really wasteful to just throw away parts of an animal you kill when those parts can be used for other stuff.

PETA people are odd ducks. They want animal rights, fine, but many animals in human society are domesticated, meaning that without us they would die a slow and horrible death in the wild. Just look at the story of that sheep that escaped the farm and when he was found he had massive layers of unsheared wool all over him, covered in sticker burrs and had trouble getting around. If he had not been found and sheared he would have died miserably. 

Do animals deserve respect? Of course. We need them. We can't survive without them even the vegans who preach moral superiority would be in trouble if the meat industry just vanished overnight. But we made these animals as they are, they need us as much as we need them, and I think that it would be an insult to the animal to not make use of its sacrifice.

All that said I do not like the fur trade or the fur industry because animals that are raised exclusively for fur are not treated well or humanely for the most part. They lead sad lives and I'm pretty sure most of their remains go to waste. That is not something I can condone or support.

[Hans the husky]

So...full disclosure time... my wiskars are porcupine hairs trimmed off or shed. 
But that is all.

What about feather suits??

Feathers can actually be harvested when a bird is molting and be done humanely. Feathers are actually an advanced kind of material because they take some skill to make if you make fake ones and if you use real ones you need to be familiar with feather patterns so it looks fairly natural. I'm all in favor of using genuine feathers for feathersuits just as long as they are harvested humanely. It's not difficult to find people online with a good reputation.

I personally have no qualms about some certain animal products being used in suit making. Leather for example is a material made from cow hide and cows are slaughtered daily for the beef industry. I can't say no to a good burger. And I think it's really wasteful to just throw away parts of an animal you kill when those parts can be used for other stuff.

PETA people are odd ducks. They want animal rights, fine, but many animals in human society are domesticated, meaning that without us they would die a slow and horrible death in the wild. Just look at the story of that sheep that escaped the farm and when he was found he had massive layers of unsheared wool all over him, covered in sticker burrs and had trouble getting around. If he had not been found and sheared he would have died miserably. 

Do animals deserve respect? Of course. We need them. We can't survive without them even the vegans who preach moral superiority would be in trouble if the meat industry just vanished overnight. But we made these animals as they are, they need us as much as we need them, and I think that it would be an insult to the animal to not make use of its sacrifice.

All that said I do not like the fur trade or the fur industry because animals that are raised exclusively for fur are not treated well or humanely for the most part. They lead sad lives and I'm pretty sure most of their remains go to waste. That is not something I can condone or support.

As I said, fur can be humane if the ollowing rules are kept.

1. The animal is treated well.

2. The aninal dies a painless death

3. The fur is put to good use. Fur does an excellent job at keeping warm and is better for the enviornment than many vegan alternatives. I'm not sure that a fursuit is good use though.

4. The rest of the animal isn't wasted. Farms will often use the carcass for fertilizer which is a great way to not let the rest of the animal to go to waste.

[Varg the wanderer]

As I said, fur can be humane if the ollowing rules are kept.

1. The animal is treated well.

2. The aninal dies a painless death

3. The fur is put to good use. Fur does an excellent job at keeping warm and is better for the enviornment than many vegan alternatives. I'm not sure that a fursuit is good use though.

4. The rest of the animal isn't wasted. Farms will often use the carcass for fertilizer which is a great way to not let the rest of the animal to go to waste.

Using the hides of animals that are killed for food is also another way to prevent waste. You can tan a hide yourself with a little bit of work, and you might be able to score a few hides for free from hunters if you ask politely.

[Kobuk]

2. The aninal dies a painless death

No death is ever "painless".

[cause the rat]

All my shoes are leather. My work books are leather. I have leather coats. I have two chairs in my living room that are leather. I have one leather guitar strap. If an animal is going to die to feed me than all it's body should be used. When I was a kid coon skin caps were a thing. I never got one but had plenty of friends who wore them. My brother had a leather whip. Those things were sold as toys when I was growing up. Even had a math teacher who wore leather skirts to school. And when I tried to play violin my bows all had real horse hair. I see nothing wrong with using the entire animal.

I remember when PETA asked the NFL to stop using leather footballs. The NFL laughed them off.