"Use me for my body"

Let's just say, it was the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen hanging in a closet.


When my grandparents moved from their huge house in Chestnut Hill to a two-bedroom apartment, it required everyone chipping in and helping them sort through 40 years worth of accumulated belongings. Packing up my grand-mother's vast walk-in closet was in itself an extremely daunting feat. However, adequately armed with my love of clothing and my grand-mother, I rolled up the sleeves of my Juicy hoodie and delved in.

It turned out to be like going through a fashion time machine; there were the Pucci dresses with matching tights, countless collage inspired Koos van den Akker creations (which ranged between 30 to 5 years old and whom my grand-mother views as a style deity), her wedding dress from the 1950’s, the dress she wore to my mother’s wedding in the 1970's, skirts that were so high-waisted they could double as tube-dresses, and I could really go on and on. (I’ll touch briefly on the beaded, ethnic necklaces from Africa, the sea-shell belts from New England, and the hats and lace under-things from Europe, just for s’s and g’s.)

I wasn’t really thinking anything was out of the ordinary when I went to reach in for the cinnamon colored satin shirt, until I felt hard lumps and bumps beneath the silken material. When I pulled back the collar to see what was underneath, I was horrified to see the countless empty eyes staring back at me. Their teeth were bared, as if ready to attack, and I don’t blame them- I’d unwittingly uncovered them from decades of entombment.

“Mom-Mom?! What…is….this?”

Turns out, taking the entire bodies of minks, gutting them, sewing little beads in place of their eyes, and then attaching them to each other to form a stole*, was quite fashionable at the beginning of the 19th century. The thing hanging in my grand-mother’s closet with the satin shirt cover had belonged to my grand-father’s mother, Ida, and had been acquired during affluent times before my grand-father and his parents emigrated from Austria to the U.S. in order to escape Hitler. To make it across the world safely together, they had been forced to barter and bribe away the majority of their possessions. Although neither my grand-mother nor grand-father liked the stole with the beady beaded eyes, they both felt required to hold onto it, as it was one of the only items to make the transition with them from Europe to the United States.

This might be the one piece of fur I would never wear. Sorry, PETA.
Apparently Victoria Beckham has jumped on the PETA band-wagon, and is forsaking her love of fur in exchange for political correctness. As I’m sure you know, PETA thinks wearing fur is an absolute outrage. Lindsay Lohan doesn’t care, and still rocks furs whenever she pleases, but I don’t know that I really want to cite her as an example... among other reasons, I don't think she's particularly partial about anything, and her main squeeze SaMantha has insinuated that Linz loves any and all furry/hairy things. (Especially beaver fur.)

Please don’t get me wrong, I love animals. Love, love, love them!
But, I love my fur coat too.

‘Tis true, I have a fur-lined coat which keeps me nice and toasty warm even on the chilliest of winter's days. It’s not ostentatious, as the fur is on the inside, but I secretly feel luxurious every time I slip it on. My grand-mother is of the mind-set, and often repeats her mantra, that “if everyone had a fur-lined coat, there wouldn’t be any wars in the world.” While I’m not sure about the validity of that, her sentiments towards fur can certainly be felt.

As PETA would have you believe, animals bred on fur-farms lead terrible, abused lives, only to be slaughtered in the end for their fur. However, this isn’t true. These animals live decent lives, never have to worry about where their food is coming from, and in death their existence goes on to be widely beneficial. (And, they’d die whether they were on a farm or out in the wild. At least on a farm, good can come from their lives?)

If these animals were left to live their lives in the wild and die naturally, their bodies would be destroyed and wasted by rot or stomach acids of the animals higher on the food chain that ate them. On a farm, every bit of the animal goes to another use.

The fur and skin goes to making fur coats, leather shoes, Uggs, belts, wallets, etc. For minks in particular, they have a thick fatty tissue underneath their fur, which is used to make a highly-valued oil which is needed for many purposes, from leather conditioner and preserver, to hypo-allergenic facial cosmetics and lotions. Some farmers sell the meat of the animals as crab bait, or give it away as food for wildlife preserves, zoos and aquariums. Others will use the animals' bodies to make organic compost, or the carcasses can even be bought and rendered down to provide raw materials for a wide range of products, from tires and paint to makeup, glue, and organic fertilizers.


Fur-farmers are the ultimate recyclers, NO part of the animal is wasted.

I like to look at it like wearing fur is the first step in vindicating the animals’ lives. I will wear my coat until it falls apart, it makes me happy every day, and by using these animal by-products, these animals’ lives were not in vain. Their lives have gone on to benefit countless other being’s- doesn’t it give more meaning to the animal’s life if it’s existence can be utilized and benefited from, long after the animals’ life-span has ended?

The bible looks at the situation the same way I do, and states that “cruelty towards animals that does not serve any human purpose [i.e. cruelty for its own sake] is prohibited. Cruelty required to serve any human need or desire or benefit is justified." In the Bible, animals are considered part of the bounty put here on Earth by God for humans to enjoy, like plants, rocks, and water. Humans can enjoy these in any manner they see fit (aside from sadism!) whether they want to eat them, wear them, do medical experiments upon them (with findings geared towards helping people), keeping them in zoos, or to keep as pets.

Sorry PETA, but it doesn't seem you have any legs to stand on, whereas I have at least 2.


* Old- fashioned term for shawl or wrap. Think today's equivalent of a pashmina.