For the fur industry uncountable animals have eking out a miserable senseless existence under horrible conditions. Locked up inside tiny cages these animals are not even allowed to touch the ground. Their deformed feet are maltreated by the gridded floor and their sensitive noses are pierced by the piles of feces underneath it. Beside bearing cups and bringing them in the same hopeless situation the only thing that awaits them in their lives is death, which is often long, extremely painful and in some cases occurs after the skinning process.

 

In the cages is no space or opportunity to engage in any natural behavior: No running, swimming, forming social groups, hunting or chewing on normal food. The only escape from this sheer boredom paired with constant discomfort is madness. As it is usual for animals in captivity under similar conditions, individuals express serious behavioral abnormalities like constantly walking back and forth along the bars of their prison. Not surprisingly, this is a sign for compromised mental health. We can only hope that turning insane makes it easier cope with the fate that awaits those, who were unlucky enough to be born in the machinery of the fur industry.

 

We think, that we have to generally overthink our relationship that we have to animals, especially to those we cannot see but only use for our enjoyment. This applies especially for the fur animals. The fur production in Switzerland is impossible, because the space requirements would exceed the profitability by far. No matter how the fur resellers try to turn it, there is no way fur is produced “animal friendly” and we believe, that everyone who has visited a fur farm and has a spark of empathy would agree on this.

 

One might argue, that hunting wild animals for fur is more acceptable, but honestly, which profit oriented person would ruin a fur with a bullet hole? Well that’s right: The prefered method is traps. Leghold traps to be exact.

 

Excluding the cases, were cats are skinned for fur, the affected animals are members of dog or marten family. This means that their diet is meat heavy. In times were the meat industry is accused to be resource intensive because of the low conversion factor from feed to meat, the fur production is complete madness. To produce fur, meat has to be produced first which is then used as feed for the unfortunate fur animals. They are then skinned and their bodies dumped or burned.

Against the claims of the fur industry fur is not a natural product. To prevent the fur from rotten on your body it is protected from decay by chemical substances. Similar to the leather production most of the used substances are harmful to the environment and the people working in the tannery (if adequate protection is not provided).

 

Fur is therefore not only harmful to the animals but also disrespectful to the environment and people. Is all this suffering really necessary for nothing but the feeling to be prettier?