Minx, the Magazine - Issue Four, Volume Two

Fur is not a fabric. It is the skin from a dead animal. Fur is not necessary for humans to stay warm. We can wear coats made from wool, a product that benefits the animal; the sheep or lamb. We can wear cotton. This material comes from a plant. We can wear synthetic fibers. Fur is a fashion statement. To me, it says, 'despite the fact that this is the product of a murdered animal, possibly tortured in the process, I wear it because it is pretty, and I am vain'.

Generally, for one fur coat you would need:
65 minks
11 foxes
11 beavers
13 lynxes

There are many different trapping laws in our country. For examples of them, see The Bloody Business of Fur . The following exerpts were found at the above site, and used with permission.

"TRAPPING CRUELTY
Traps are such imprecise killing tools that no one even knows how many furbearers are killed. The best guesses put the number at more than 2 million "target" species a year in the United States alone, along with an unknown number of "trash" species, who are simply discarded. We do know, however, that trapped animals suffer. Obviously, after being trapped, animals struggle to free themselves (X) . They pull and twist their limbs from the trap jaws and end up with abrasions, torn ligaments, and broken bones (X). They gnaw at the traps and suffer broken teeth and other oral injuries. Most pathetic of all, they sometimes chew off their own trapped limb -- a pyrrhic victory at best, as infection, blood loss, or predators ensure that freedom is short- lived. If unable to escape, the animal is certain to die of exposure, dehydration, or starvation; if the animal is still alive when the trapper checks the trap, the agony is ended by stomping or bludgeoning (X) ."

"Animals caught in underwater traps and snares struggle desperately before drowning. A University of Guelph study in Ontario concluded that muskrats snared underwater may take up to 5 minutes before dying, mink may take up to 18 minutes, and beavers may take up to 24 minutes."

You say you prefer to wear mink, or fur from other 'ranched' animals? Read further.

Lady With Ermine

"MEANWHILE BACK AT THE RANCH
Because cruel traps have become a public relations nightmare for the fur industry, its spokespersons try to whitewash the issue by saying that the majority of furbearers killed for coats are humanely raised on "ranches." Ranching now accounts for about half of total pelt production -- but only a few species, principally mink, chinchilla, and silver and grey fox (X), are raised on ranches. Nonetheless, fur ranches are nothing less than concentration camps for furbearers (X) -- where profit is the motive and humane oversight is absent. Packed in wire mesh cages, the animals are denied adequate space, normal social interactions, and free movement. As a result, the animals often exhibit distressed neurotic behavior, pacing frantically back and forth in their cages."

"And while life is cruel and miserable, death is crude and blunt. Some ranchers break the furbearers' necks, either manually or mechanically. They may anally electrocute them or poison them with strychnine or cyanide. Others gas animals with unfiltered and uncooled carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide -- usually from an automobile exhaust pipe hooked up to the killing chamber." In Germany, during WWI, we called it genocide; here, we call it fashion.

"Despite these realities -- and the fact that the American Veterinary Medical Association has condemned most of these killing methods as inhumane -- the fur industry claims to have animal welfare at heart and has issued standards of care to be "voluntarily" adopted by breeders. The fact is, the fur industry's propaganda is as easy to see through as the wire cages in which the animals are imprisoned."

What can I do?
Do not wear it! Do not buy it; do not accept it as a gift; do not give it as a gift.
As an alternative, choose wool, cotton, and synthetic materials.

(X) <~~lynx caught in a trap