With the cold weather well and truly upon us, and Christmas present dilemmas being faced by us all, you might be tempted to purchase a trendy woollen hat. Hats like the one pictured come in a wide variety of colours, and have luxurious fur pom-poms attached. Many have faux or fake fur pom-poms that are amazingly realistic, and soft and silky to touch, but a significant number of them are made from real fur.
A real fur hat for less than ten pounds – it’s hard to believe.
These hats are such good value that many people assume that the fur can’t be real, and sometimes the labelling inside the hats can be misleading, or even non-existent.
Juana Warburton, General Manager of the ManxSPCA, is concerned by the increasing number of these hats being worn. Juana commented: ‘I love the Isle of Man but I wish it was a bit less windy, and at this time of year I always wear a beanie-type bobble hat to keep my ears warm. There are so many to choose from at the moment – they’re really popular.
Because the wearing of real fur coats became so socially unacceptable several years ago, I just assumed that real fur clothing was no longer an issue. But it is.
I almost bought a beautiful beanie with a huge fluffy pom-pom on it when I was on a shopping trip recently, until I realised that the pom-pom was actually made from racoon dog fur farmed in China. The fur farm industry is notorious for the terrible conditions its animals live in. Racoons, foxes and rabbits are kept in tiny, barren cages until they are big enough to yield the maximum amount of fur. Many die a horrible death from disease or stress before they are slaughtered and skinned. It’s factory farming at its worst.
I would like to see a ban on all real fur products, and I hope the UK and the Isle of Man can move towards this. We can all do our bit to make the trade less profitable – firstly, please make sure you don’t mistakenly buy real fur. If it feels too good to be fake, then it probably is! And secondly, if you have a friend who wears a real fur beanie, or who has a real fur pom-pom dangling from her handbag, make them aware of the plight of fur-farmed animals. If they continue to wear real fur they are tacitly condoning the industry.’
If you would like more information about fur farming, and how you can petition the UK Government for a ban on fur imports, please visit the Humane Society’s website www.hsi.org.
