When I was a kid at summer camp, we used to trade in tokens for various “campy” trinkets and toys. Among the selection were rabbit furs and fox tails. I always though those were pretty cool and thought “awww, poor bunny. I wonder how it died”. Never did I think that someone had killed it for its fur.

Then on Sunday I just happened to choose to watch an HBO special on Ingrid Newkirk, the founder of PeTA. I have never really taken an interested in PeTA because of all the negative publicity they generate and their extreme approach to animal activism. To say that animals are, on every level, just like humans and should be treated as such is a bit extreme in my mind. That sentiment was absolutely reinforced through this candid documentary, but I also saw something I will never be able to erase from my memory. As they have a tendency to do, they flashed a graphic video without any forewarning and I didn’t have a chance to look away or even know what was coming. It was a video of an animal being skinned, alive. *shudder* It was one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen and I am still reeling from it. (If you are even a bit curious about the video, google for “fur is murder” and it will take you to the PeTA video campaign site. Its the one about Chinese fur harvesting.)

I don’t know how I thought fur coats were made or obtained, but I guess I just never really thought about it hard enough to care. Surely I know deep down that they don’t take fur from already dead animals, but I never thought about the fact that there are actually “furriers” who raise animals just to kill them for their fur. And to know that in some areas of the world its done it such an inhumane way just so they don’t mess up the fur, it just makes me sick. How are there not rules against this?

And surely my friends who own fur coats don’t know this is happening, right? I mean, I’ve always had an icky feeling about fur coats or mink stoles, enough that I’ve never wanted to buy one, but surely those who have bought them don’t know about this. Or do I have sadistic, shallow friends who would purchase them even knowing the full truth? I just can’t believe that. Surely anyone who has seen this video or images like it would never purchase or want to purchase the product of such cruelty.

Surely.