On a cold March morning last week I went grocery shopping at my local Whole Foods market. Whole Foods is a world leader for organic, natural foods. I consider people who shop here to be relatively enlightened.

I saw at least six coats with real fur trim collars.

Each time I see someone wearing fur, a little bit of my faith in humanity dies. Negative thoughts creep in: “That person’s morals are mired in the Stone Age,” “Real people wear fake fur,” “Doesn’t she care?!” For the record, fur production involves immense suffering—be it ranch-raised (visualize deranged animals circling for months in wire boxes before being electrocuted, strangled or clubbed then skinned, sometimes still alive) or wild-caught (visualize animals struggling for hours or days while a leg or foot goes gangrene in a steel-jaw trap, and babies starving when their mother fails to return). That it’s all completely unnecessary makes it all the more offensive.

On my daily commute to work I display a large “Fur Shame!” button on my briefcase.” It’s my little way of expressing publicly how I feel about making innocent animals suffer for someone’s vanity, ignorance, or both.

Last week on my commute home I chatted with a neighbor who told me she recently had her beagle euthanized due to advanced Lyme Disease symptoms that left him unable (or unwilling) to walk. An educated, articulate and compassionate person, she was still agonizing over her decision to end the dog’s pain. I told her I thought she did the right thing, and asked if she was planning to replace her dog. She expressed reluctance as she is single and her long work hours might make a dog lonely.  

I noticed the collar of her coat. It was real fur. Trying not to sound confrontational, I inquired if her collar was real fur. “I hope not!” she replied. “I didn’t pay enough for it to even consider that it might be fur.” I told her I was quite certain that it was fur and that the label might confirm this. I also warned her that several coat manufacturers have been caught mislabeling real fur as faux (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/07/dog.fur/index.html).

Which goes to show that I’m wrong to assume that fur wearers just don’t give a damn. Many, if my neighbor is representative, are well-meaning but either careless or mis-informed. Perhaps there’s still hope for the demise of an industry that should have gone out with the arrival of the loom.