radium foxes are an extinct color morph of the silver fox first noted in 1935 on a farm in Shawano, Wisconsin by Fred Eberlein. above are the only known taxidermy specimens (x) of the variation before becoming extinct in Wisconsin in the 1940′s. the radium foxes are described by a Wisconsin newspaper as being “all white, except for a blue-black undercoat”. interestingly enough the radium fox may not be extinct in European fur farms under the name “slate glow”. 

above is a “slate glow” fox (photo credit to uniquefoxes on Instagram, used with permission), the fur appears to be a white color with a dark blue-tinted undercoat that shows around the eyes and ears. although not identical to the taxidermied foxes from Shawano, Wisconsin, they share a striking resemblance. 

(fur close up by ChallengersVeir) 

The Bollo Caper (Video, Rick Reinert, 1985)

Animated TV special based on the story by Art Buchwald. A leopard brought to New York to be made into a fur coat escapes and travels to Washington DC, where he asks for be declared an endangered species. You can watch it here.

More information on fur farming may be found here: https://www.lcanimal.org/index.php/campaigns/fur/fur-trade-facts

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/here-are-the-innocent-faces-of-the-cruel-fur-industry/

https://www.furfreealliance.com/

Please note: The fur pictured is faux

Minks are a common source of fur for clothing, accessories and even eyelash extensions...In the wild, they would individually occupy up to 2500 acres of wetland habitat. Despite generations of being bred for fur, these naturally inquisitive and solitary animals have been found to suffer greatly in captivity, cramped with others in small wire cages where chronic boredom and stress lead to frantic pacing and self-mutilation.

- Dominion ('Minks' Chapter), narrated by Rooney Mara

Person: finds fur from foxes inside abandoned fur company

People: oh such a shame!! All that fur going to waste! The foxes died for nothing!! They died for no purpose:'( people could use that fur!!!1!

Would these people say the same thing if people got murdered and the killer decided to not use their skins afterwards? And if the killer DID use their skins, killing them would've been fine?

Or I suppose in the holocaust it was a shame that all the clothes went to waste and the jews died for nothing or something. 🤷‍♀️

The delusion is real.

I get that calling white lotus lbh a sticky little 'sheep' is a canon translation and stuck in the fandom now anyway, but I do feel the intended spirit of the original word wasn't the sheeple/dumb herd animal that's more common in the western world, but instead something actually conveying sweetness, innocence, purity and youth - lamb.

Famous for being utterly adorable and following around their mothers, gambolling in sunny meadows, curly white wool shining.

And NOW we can talk about black sheep/wolf in sheep's clothing metaphors.

What are some actual problems in the animal product industry?

I'm mostly familiar with fur farming so that's what I'll comment on.

A big concern of mine is that because ARA campaigns against people using or farming fur there's been a decline in the public's trust of fur products in countries that traditionally had good animal welfare standards. This has caused an uptick in fur being farmed in places where the animal welfare laws aren't as regulated, so you're seeing many more unethical farms being able to sell furs cheaply to markets that buy fur for textile. The quality of the fur doesn't matter as much as in the clothing market, so the animals are raised to be as big as possible, exceeding thier healthy sizes and weights to produce as much fur on one animal as possible.

Simultaneously, these unethical farms and businesses are aware of the bad press that ARA groups have spread about the industry, and will sell off other byproducts that aren't as heavily scrutinized or regulated as fur. Many mislabeled blue fox skulls are being sold worldwide (often illegally) by oddities dealers that come from these farms as well as oils and fertilizers and other byproducts of fur farming. It's easy to tell if an animal was unhealthy due to the condition of the pelt, but when the fur is processes as wool or part of the animal people may not recognize came from a fur farm is distributed, it still funds these poorly regulated places.

Meanwhile, the farmers and workers who are being harassed are ones who are generally compliant with WelFur standards, meaning that their farms are up to the current welfare codes in place. It's causing many good farms to go out of business or in some cases close down due to entire states or countries banning fur farming or the use of fur products.

So now good farms are being held accountable for bad practices done at other farms, and it's becoming more and more difficult to find places that do hold up to ethical animal husbandry standards. It's also promoting the use of plastics to make faux fur products which are far worse for the environment then just using fur. And due to the scrutiny many farmers face, it's becoming less worth it for them to sell thier animals as pelts and instead sell them to the exotic pet trade (i.e. people like saveafox who buys foxes directly from an unethical fur farm with bad breeding practices).

It's bad because it feels like there's very little room for changes and improvements to the fur industry because of the chokehold ARA groups have on the public's understanding of fur farming. For example, I'd like to see more ethical breeding practices done based on studying certain color generics and how they effect the health of certain species (we know some color mutations also cause genetic issues with certain species and I would like to have more information as to why that happens and how it can be avoided). However, it's difficult to discuss topics like that and push for change within the industry because most fur farms have to be extremely cautious with who they discuss thier practices to. ARAs will often lie to them to infiltrate thier farms to "expose" them by fabricating lies or stealing and releasing thier animals.

my new unpopular opinion is that there is nothing inherently immoral about the fur industry, and making clothing out of fur can be perfectly ethical.

It's been several months but I can't stop thinking about when I reblogged a post that talked about how you shouldn't buy nautilus or abalone shells because these animals are very much endangered or threatened by extinction in part due to the overharvesting of their shells, and then someone reblogged it from me with the tag "abalone shells fuck majorly i got one on my shelf"

????? I'm sorry but read the room??????

If you support, indorse, or are even neutral towards the fur industry at all please get off my blog. This is one of the things that makes me the angriest when I see it. I don't know how anyone can see foxes and minks locked in cages so they can't even touch the ground, bred to grow as much skin as possible so they look like bags of fur, put out in the hot sun, and think that it's fine. It's disgusting and unethical, and it's also really weird at least to me. I don't know why you would think you look good with a dead animal draped around you like that. Wool is fine. It doesn't hurt the sheep, and it's actually good for them. (ignore the fact that we selectively bred them to be able to grow so much wool that if we don't shear them they'll suffocate from the heat) Fur is not environmentally friendly. (fake fur isn't either it's full of microplastics) It's environmentally friendly in the same way that the modern livestock industry is environmentally friendly. If you want to be good to the environment there's a lot better clothes you can buy.

I lived in China about 10 years ago, and I remember buying a vintage fur coat. And I showed it to one of my Australian friends, who told me, "Are you aware that this might be cat or dog fur?" And I was like, "What are you talking about? [That] is impossible." And she was like, "No, no, here they do eat cats and dogs, and they do use the fur to make coats." And this is how I think I made the connection, because I was like, "Okay, I am able to wear a fox without caring at all, and I could not for even a second imagine wearing a cat or dog coat, because they're my friends and I grew up with them." I think that's the turning point where I completely stopped fantasizing about fur. - Rime Arodaky in Let Us Be Heroes - The True Cost of Our Food Choices (2018)

"wearing leather/fur or eating animal products is unethical" SHUT UP SHUT UP WE ARE PART OF THE ECOSYSTEM!!!!