One of my dreams in life is to one day have my own zoo, or at least a smaller conservation zoo type establishment for smaller wild cats (doubt it will ever happen but a girl can dream... ) so last night I was doing a google search on Ocelots and I found this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ocelot-Fur-Co ... 415dc204ac

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-30s-R ... 2eb85909f2

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EXQUISITE-Rea ... 415d9c1b3e

I didn't even know you could actually still buy these kinds of things, I thought it was illegal seeing as the animals are endangered but apparently as long as you have the correct paperwork you can sell them if they were made prior to the 1970's when the ban was made.

Apparently fur is back in with some of the big fashion designers again now and some people are buying vintage furs because they see it as an ethical way to wear fur. They say they are recycling the furs and that it is better to use them than to destroy something an animal has died for, they also say that using vintage fur saves more animals being killed to make new furs.

So I thought I would ask what the people on here think, would you wear one of those coats? Do you think vintage fur is fine? Do you think fur is ok as long as the animals were killed for some thother reason (i.e rabbits to eat or coyotes/ foxes as pests) so that the useful parts of the animal aren't wasted? (I'm assuming that everyone here is against the live skinning of animals for fur practiced on a huge scale in China currently). Do you consider fur to be a useful renewable natural resource or are you totally against fur of any kind?

Hmmm, tough question. I recently had this very conversation with a group of friends. I have a lot of friends who are heavily into burlesque, and my one of my best friends is a teacher and organises burlesque shows. I was invited to this burlesque afternoon tea and we went to the local vintage shop. there were some absolutely beautiful furs in there, which were 100% authentic vintage.
I am a veggie, been veggie for 20 years but even so I have to say I came to the conclusion that I would wear one of those coats.

I would not buy or wear a new fur coat or anything with trims, but I suppose I think that its a shame for the coat to be destroyed when that's what the animal died for. I think it should be worn.

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Personally, it absolutely disgusts me to think that anyone could wear the skin/fur of such a beautiful animal that has been killed like that. I don't care if it was killed in the '30s, '40s, or yesterday. It has always, and will always make me sick to my stomach. To me, "vintage" means nothing. I just think it's above and beyond wrong. How do people even think they are worthy of wearing those beautiful animals' skin? No one is.

All I can see when I looked at that ebay picture of the Ocelot fur coat was a beautiful animal being SO UNJUSTLY brutally murdered, for an absolutely ridiculous and selfish reason. Never in my entire life would I even consider wearing the real fur of such a wonderful animal. Wild cats are by far my most favorite animal in the world, any harm that comes to them deeply saddens me. I accidentally stumbled onto a horrifying youtube video of a beautiful wild lynx caught in a foothold trap being shot and killed.. I just about DIED. My heart sank, and I couldn't believe it. I thought it was going to be a cute video of someone just capturing rare footage of a wild lynx up close, but boy was I wrong. Very misleading title.

Anyway, I guess I'm going off-topic a bit. But simply put, no, I would NEVER condone the use of real animal fur for stupid 'fashion'. I would much rather scoop these babies up and love them forever... Yeah, maybe I'm crazy. Whatever.

I voted Yes as long as the rest of the animal is used. Because leather comes to mind and I don't have a problem with that. I guess my answer would be Yes as long as the rest of the animal is used AND farm raised not removed from the wild. I can't think of any fur that would match that description other than rabbit although I don't think they make good food because they do taste just like chicken and aren't very meaty. So I just eat chicken. However they do make good Bengal food. I get toys for my cat made of rabbit or dried rabbit parts (ears,feet) direct from the farm that raises my cats food. I don't have a problem with that. Being a guy I'm not interest in wearing fur. But coon skin hats like Davy Crockett wore I do have a problem with even if they are pest animals.

I say yes if its killed for some other reason - but do agree that vintage should be used in preference to killing for new!
I wear leather shoes, gloves, boots, motorbike kit, and this has been produced (I hope) using humane methods.

I must add though - That if Merlin shouts at me once more tonight, I will have a beautiful new pair of slippers!

I dont condone any killing of animals for purposes such as their coat, or weird medicines or trophy's.
I was vegetarian for 15 years and only this year have started to eat meat. When i was vegetarian I wore leather shoes - if they are killing the cow for its meat I'd rather every part of the animal was used.

My mother has my grandmothers fur coat and animal skin products brought back from Africa from the 50's - they are beautiful but they are kept away and the coat is never worn.

There are some brilliant 'fake' materials out there so would prefer to see those purchased and used nowadays. I go to some classic car events where people dress up from the different era's, i hate seeing furs with the feet etc still attached - it really turns my stomach.

No NO NO!! I dont care how old it is whre it came from how the animal died I say 150% NO.It is wrong and th those of you who dont know Bengals are being breed and raised to an adult size to be slaughterd for their coats. It makes me sick and No I dont even own anyhting leather!!! It is wrong in every since of the word. I understand that people have their beliefs as native americans and some tribal people from Alaska I understand that but how can someone here in todays society have the desire or even want to have a fur coat? It makes me sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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It's a very slippery slope I think. I personally would never choose to do it, but you have to be careful about how far you want to take this argument. You won't find any fur coats, or animal heads lining my walls, or bear skin rugs, but I do eat meat, I sometimes get shoes that have "leather uppers", my previous car had leather seats, and I'm sure if someone were to do an inventory of my possessions they'd be able to find a pretty good number of things with animal origins, or had some indirect connection to animal cruelty in some way. I don't try to rationalize it, so I have to live with the knowledge that I'm a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to animal rights and the like. But I sure don't want to flaunt my hypocrisy and I try to make up for it lots of donations to animal causes, support animal rights legislation and so forth.

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The little monsters 3