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| Photo: chinchillaguide.com |
Genesis 4:21
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.*
The label says that the full-length
chinchilla came from Slovakia, the former territory of the Socialist Republic
of Czechoslovakia which split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia after the “fall”
of communism in 1989.
The red dress under the chinchilla coat
cost $300. It’s like drinking a glass of cheap red bubbly Moscato in my 85-year
old crystal glass from Grandma Grace.
This department store is certainly not
alone in its offering of high-end furs. There is another store that actually
specializes in fur coats. I had expected this furrier to go out of business long
time ago but it’s been around for quite some time. There are no PETA protests
and no sprayings of red paint like they used to do in the 1990s.
According to furriers, it takes about
130-200 chinchillas to make a coat, depending on size and length. Sixty-five
minks, 10-24 foxes, and 60-80 sables must die in order to make a full-length
coat.
Chinchilla fur is thirty times softer
than human hair. Because the fur is so thick, 20,000 hairs per square cm, parasites
such as fleas suffocate in its thickness. A chinchilla has more than fifty
hairs growing from each follicle. The animal must bathe in volcanic ash or dust
frequently in order to remove excess oil and moisture from its fur.
Who needs furs in our climate change? If
you ask environmentalists, since the planet is warming globally, this dastardly
man-made climate change, it is ridiculous to even own a fur. It is an unnecessary fashion statement of
social status, like driving a gas-guzzling or an expensive car. Even if you
live in permafrost regions, with all this polar high tech clothing, who needs
furs in order to prevent frost bite or freezing.
There are 6,000 fur farms in the European
Union, capturing 63% of the mink production alone, 64% of farms are in northern
Europe, 11% in North America, and the rest are in places like Argentina and
Russia. https://www.change.org/p/eu-ban-fur-farming-in-the-european-union
Major producers are China, the
Netherlands, the Baltic States, Finland (fox pelts), Russia, Canada, U.S., and
the European Union (70% of fox pelts production), with China being the largest
re-exporter of finished fur products.
Notwithstanding PETA’s dreadful description
of the caged conditions of animal farms destined for fur coats,
environmentalists tell us about the environmental pollution by chemicals such
as ammonia, formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and other chromates and bleaching
agents used to preserved and dye furs. These chemicals prevent the
decomposition of furs over time in owners’ closets and, in their opinion, are a
waste of resources that should be used somewhere else.
According to the environmental lobby,
the production of one fur coat from farm-raised animals uses “more than 15
times more energy than producing a faux-fur coat.” They do not say how they
arrived at this number and I am not holding my breath for its accuracy.
The much maligned and often cruel modern
fur industry occupies an important part in the history of the United States. “Beaver furs were one of the first commodities settlers
traded with Europe,” more specifically France.
Beaver pelt traders stretched
their routes from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to the Mississippi River with outposts
in St. Louis and New Orleans, leaving their French mark in names such Des
Moines, Iowa and Detroit (French détroit, “straits”), Michigan.
The fur trade followed the
beaver in the north and to the Pacific north-west. You may object to wearing
furs today but states like Washington, Montana, Idaho, Oregon (Benny the Beaver),
California, and Wisconsin owe their existence to the beaver fur trade.
* Chriss R. says, "Notice he did not make them wool clothes or linen clothes. He used SKIN---leather!"
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