Fur goodness sake: Skinned alive for the catwalk

By MERRILEES PARKER
Updated: 01:23 BST, 9 August 2008

Fur coats are in the middle of a fashion 復帰

Three years ago, I was 存在 fitted for my wedding dress when the designer suddenl y produced a white fox-fur stole out of nowhere and draped it around my shoulders as a 劇の finishing touch.

I have always thought that fur is beautiful, but even then I had qualms about the 倫理学 of wearing it and wondered where it had come from.

'Oh, it was probably a wild fox,' said the designer casually.

There was something undeniably indulgent and luxurious about wearing that fur on my wedding day, and whenever I looked at it in my wardrobe afterwards, I felt a 確かな 犯罪, given the care I take in sourcing my produce in my work as a chef.

Recently, however, I had an experience which made me feel 肉体的に sick every time I saw or touched it.

That experience was making a 文書の for Channel 4 about the fur 貿易（する）? -? an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 投機・賭ける which would see me 伸び（る）ing 前例のない 接近 to a fur farm, take me animal trapping in the American wilderness and 支配する me to images of 苦しむing which changed my 見解（をとる）s on wearing fur for ever.

I was first approached about this programme に引き続いて an earlier 文書の I had made for the BBC about chicken farming.

As a chef, I am careful to use only 解放する／自由な-範囲 meat, but I understand that 選び出す／独身 mums with four kids to 料金d need a cheaper 代案／選択肢 to the expensive 有機の and 解放する／自由な 範囲 選択s.

My argument was that there should be a middle ground? -? さまざまな other 福利事業 改良s which would 改善する a chicken's lot without making it prohibitively expensive? -? and it was with the same open mind that I approached my 調査 into the にわか景気ing fur 貿易（する）.

Fur is in the middle of a 復帰? -? on the catwalks, in magazines and on the High Street.

Today, around 400 designers use fur, compared with only 45 in 1985, and the fur 産業 is 価値（がある） £500 million a year in Britain alone? -? and a staggering £7 billion 世界的な.

As I discovered for myself, fur no longer has the same shock value it did 20 years ago, when you 危険d 言葉の 乱用 and even phys ical attack if you dared wear it in public.

As an 実験, I was lent a 十分な-length mink coat to wear when we began filming.

Nervously 投機・賭けるing out on to the streets of London, I was surprised to find that it didn't attract a 選び出す／独身 消極的な reaction? -? even when I stopped people and told them what I was wearing.

This change in 態度 is perhaps not surprising given the 裏書，是認 of many celebrities who wear fur 率直に and with pride.

Given this new 受託, and the sheer 規模 of the 産業, there seems little point in hoping it will go away, so I wondered if there were ways of making fur more 倫理的な.

Minks across the world are 苦しむing for the multi-million 続けざまに猛撃する fur 貿易（する）

Anti-fur 選挙運動者s have long 非難するd the 産業 as 野蛮な and 非人道的な, but surely, I thought, there must be good practices 同様に as bad.

If we could encourage the former, and 警告する 消費者s against the latter, then perhaps we could take some of the 犯罪 out of wearing fur.

And in theory, why should the wearing of humanely sourced fur? -? from a 規制するd 産業? -? be any different from wearing 着せる／賦与するs made out of leather?

I had hoped the British fashion 産業 might co-operate, but I was to be disappointed.

I asked more than 100 British designers to talk on camera about their use of fur, but all 拒絶する／低下するd, such was their 恐れる of 報復s from the anti-fur ロビー.

To get the 産業's 味方する of the story, I had to travel to Denmark where the Scandinavian fur 産業 has been busy 法廷，裁判所ing designers by sponsoring their collections and encouraging them to work with fur.

This 集中的な 運動 to get their 製品s into shops led me to hope that I might persuad e at least one company to show me how animals live and die on a fur farm.

After 激しい 交渉s, and with two PR minders watching our every move, we were 許すd to film? -? for the first time? -? a farm where 20,000 mink every year are killed for their pelts.

It all seemed surprisingly humane, the mink raised in cages which were small but gave them at least some room to move around in before they were ガス／無駄話d with 炭酸ガス.

I had 推定する／予想するd lots of 血 and 叫び声をあげるing, but it all felt やめる clean and 臨床の and no part of the animal was wasted.

As someone who 作品 単独で with 解放する／自由な-範囲 meat, I would never wear fur from mink farmed in this way, but, if you are comfortable with the general idea of wild creatures 存在 kept in cages, then this Hilton of mink farms might 井戸／弁護士席 説得する you that mink farming is not as bad as the anti fur 選挙運動者s （人命などを）奪う，主張する.

The one 疑問 I had was whether this was all just a public relations 演習.

If fur farming can be that humane, why has it been 無法者d in the UK?

For a different 見解（をとる）, I visited the Nottingham offices of 尊敬（する）・点 For Animals, a ロビー group that （権力などを）行使するs 重要な political clout and was instrumental in bringing about a 禁止（する） on fur farming here.

Its director, 示す Glover, told me that I had indeed seen a 高度に sanitised 見解／翻訳／版 of fur farming and showed me ビデオs 発射 by undercover 選挙運動者s which, he 保証するd me, were far closer to the truth.

The first of these was filmed in a fox farm in America.

Foxes are left in cramped cages, chasing their tails psychotically in never-ending circles

I watched horrified as I saw 明確に 苦しめるd animals in cramped cages, chasing their tails psychotically in never-endin g circles.

I covered my 注目する，もくろむs as the camera 削減（する） to one fox sitting and trembling in its cage? -? its 権利 脚 stripped of its flesh and gnawed to the bone by the other crazed creatures around it.

As Glover explained, the fox furs 収穫d from these creatures are 価値（がある） around only £30, so the 農業者s do not waste money on calling out vets, even when the foxes are in such obvious 苦しめる.

It was hard to believe that this （映画の）フィート数 was 発射 in the U.S., which argues that its 産業 is very 井戸／弁護士席 規制するd, but far worse was to come in （映画の）フィート数 from 中国, which 供給（する）s half of all the world's fur.

This was also 発射 at a fox farm and I watched horrified as these animals were clubbed, stamped on, or dashed against the ground to subdue them.

Behind 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s: A mink 星／主役にするs out of its cage

Then, through my 涙／ほころびs, I saw these poor creatures 存在 literally skinned alive.

Afterwards, I 設立する it difficult to erase these awful images from my mind, but still I wondered whether I might find a way to wear fur without a 有罪の 良心.

Could animals spend their time in the wild and then be killed humanely?

To find out, I went on a remarkable 旅行 to Idaho, where I was taught to lay an animal 罠（にかける） by Vietnam 退役軍人 Johnnie Wisenhurst, who makes his living selling beaver pelts to 地元の 売買業者s for up to £150 a time, as six 世代 of his family have done before him.

From his point of 見解（をとる）, he is trapping animals from a 維持できる and perceived pest 全住民.

Like the 残り／休憩（する） of the fur 貿易（する）, trapping is 議論の的になる.

Animals have been known to chew their 四肢s off to escape, so, after setting our 罠（にかける） late one night, I was relieved to find the next morning t hat it had 逮捕（する）d a beaver and killed it 完全な with no 調印する of a struggle.

In Idaho, trapping is open to anyone? -? a child as young as 12 can get a licence.

There are good trappers and bad ones.

Johnnie seemed to me to be one of the good guys, taking care not to 原因（となる） unnecessary 苦しむing to the animals he killed.

The problem for those who buy the myriad furs on the market today is that they have no way of knowing whether they were killed humanely, and the 産業 itself makes little or no 成果／努力 to 供給する such （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）.

Some furs are 'Origin 保証するd', which means they come from a 規制するd country, but 規則s 変化させる from country to country and 福利事業 基準s can 異なる 劇的な from farm to farm.

Celebrities like supermodel Kate Moss have made the fur-coat a must have fashion 衣料品

One auction house I visited in Denmark 扱うs a third of the world's furs and sorts them not by country of origin, but by colour and 質.

One （製品，工事材料の）一回分 of 2,000 mink furs might 含む／封じ込める furs from hundreds of 供給者s from all over the world? -? some 持続するing high 基準s of care, some not.

Even the 買い手s who 企て，努力，提案 for them do so without any knowledge of their provenance, so what hope does the 消費者 have of making an 倫理的な choice when it comes to fur?

If they did have more （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）, would they care?

Unlike the food 産業, where growing public 関心 has brought about 改良s in animal 福利事業 and transparency in labelling 製品s, the people who wear fur don't seem to give a damn about how it has been produced.

Without 圧力 from its 顧客s, the fur 産業 will remain unregulated and, as long as that is the 事例／患者, anyone buying fur could be supporting animal cruelty. Is any item of 着せる／賦与するing really 価値（がある） that?

For me, the answer is an emphatic no.

After I had finished filming the 文書の, one of the first things I did was 削減（する） up the fox stole I had worn at my wedding and throw it away.

KILL IT, 肌 It, Wear It is on Channel 4, Sunday, August 10 at 10pm.