by Barry Williams

Created on: January 18, 2008

If we go around killing cattle for leather, alligators for shoes ,deer for chamois and see nothing morally wrong in that , why it is immoral to wear fur. What I see as immoral is the killing of animals simply for the fur alone. It really is such a waste ,isn't it?

Apart from the leather we obtain from cattle not much of the animal is wasted. Beef cattle supply our meat. Without meat there would be no fast food outlets. Without fast food outlets there would be no need to out for entertainment. The list just goes on and on . It is morally correct to kill beef for leather in order to cater for all the other benefits.

I suppose you are going to tell me that if we shoot alligators for their leather then that is all we extract from the poor animal. Not so. Haven't you even eaten alligator meat before? If you haven't I'm sure you pet has when you open up a can of pet food. They probably even use the rest of the alligator in the manufacture of blood and bone fertilizer . Again ,it is morally correct to kill alligators for shoe leather in order to cater for all the other benefits.

No doubt you have stuck your fork into a lovely piece of venison. Not imitation or make believe venison but the real thing when you went to the restaurant. That afternoon before you left for dinner you may have washed your car with a genuine chamois. The genuine version does actually do a far better job than an artificial one. If such is the case then you should have no moral concerns about killing deer. Both venison and chamois have deer as their source.

That's why I think it is immoral to kill animals simple for their skins .In this case it is for the fur alone embedded in the skin. Who every heard of eating mink ,sable and fox for goodness sake ? How many cans of pet food labels read twenty percent chicken , forty percent something even we are not sure about , twenty percent water and twenty percent some animal slaughtered purely for its fur. The makers of this product assure purchasers that no cat or dog was harmed in the manufacture of this pet food? Totally absurd, isn't?

Unless an animal can be slaughtered and provide near to one hundred percent use of its body it is morally wrong for humans to kill other animals purely for their skin. Until there is a market for mink , sable ,fox etc meat on the dining table and industries such as pet food manufactures taking up the slack by grinding up the rest of those animals then we should leave them alone and protect the animals to the full extent of the law. There should be nothing morally wrong in skinning alive any person caught breaking those laws.

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