Should I destroy my hat?

[TreasonousBastard]

Bought a Chinese rabbit fur hat a few weeks ago. Bloody great thing, it looks like those Russian sable hats they all wore in "Spies Like Us" but I wouldn't buy anything sable. Maybe, just maybe, Russian bear, but not sable.

Great hat, really warm during that frigid snap we just had and gets some interesting comments.

But, it may have been made from rabbits skinned while still alive, if I am to believe the reports I'm now hearing of this being done in China.

So, I admit I probably won't get rid of the hat, but it does bring up some interesting ethical concerns.

[kwassa]

1. You can leave your hat on.

Why would they skin an animal alive?

[TreasonousBastard]

3. It saves a little time not having to kill it first. n/t

[Flarney]

7. Tragically yes... WARNING, Graphic Example Below:

On 60 Minutes about 15 years ago I saw a cat skinned alive in China...a guy just nonchalantly dipped it in a boiling liquid of some kind, pulled it out, the skin/fur came right off like a glove and the poor cat was still standing there shaking. It was horrific...I still can't get that image out of my head.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. Officially, China condemns the practice...

sort of:

http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/gyzg/t230798.htm

As with everything Chinese, however (and here, there, and everywhere else, for that matter) official policy does not necessarily filter down to the factory floor.

[htuttle]

2. Would you be okay with a hat made with roadkilled fur?

I mean, in both cases, you are using parts of an animal that somebody else killed (in whatever way). Will discarding the hat keep other rabbits from getting killed that way? No.

I'd keep the hat. That rabbit ain't coming back to life.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Could say the same about...

minks raised for fur, beavers and sables trapped in the wild, or hide from beef and sheep used for food. Or clubbed baby seals or endangered wild cats. And the usal arguments will ensue.

But, the question here is intentional cruelty. Some actions, like killing elephants and rhinos for tusks and horns, are pretty much universally condemned. Others, like leghold trapping, are heavily condemned, but still largely accepted. Using skin and hide from food animals is generally accepted, except by some vegans and others who just hate killing animals for whatever reason.

But, this goes a bit beyond the usual questions and is cruelty, not to torture the animals for pleasure or a more effective way of catching them, but simply to save a few seconds of time by not slaughtering them first. I would think this would be universally considered inhumane.

I wouldn't have bought the hat if I knew it came from rabbits skinned alive, but the question now is what is my own obligation simply on the suspicion that it might have been.

To keep it implies approval.

[China_cat]

9. Same dilemma with fur coats, etc

what do you do with them when you decide that you can't condone the conditions under which it was produced. If you give it to someone else, you're just giving them the same problem. If you destroy it, it's gone but the fact that you still bought it remains.

Keep it. Wear it. It'll make you remember not to make the same mistake again. And that's all it was...a mistake against your own ethics, a lapse of judgement.

As someone else once said, "go and sin no more".

[redqueen]

11. Agreed. n/t

[htuttle]

10. True, but in another sense, throwing it away wastes the already-killed animal....

...just for the sake of your personal conscience.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Ethical dilemmas are like that sometimes.

:shrug:

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Send it to Brittney when you're done with it.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Wouldn't she need two?

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. It could be worn where needed. Velcro is a wonderful invention.

[valerief]

12. YES. nt