Processing

Fur is obtained from live animals, which were previously hunted. Because of the growing fur industry, fur can be obtained from fur farms. Fur is used in apparel like coats, gloves, boots, and sweaters. Some examples of the animals trapped in North America are coyotes, minks, martens, foxs, raccoons, and seals. There are many different interesting ways to trap animals, that includes drowning, strangling, freezing, shooting, and suffocating.

Pelts from farmers are stripped from flesh or fat and and also they are stretched and air dried. Pelts go through treatment called fur dressing to preserve them. They are soaked in salt water for several hours to soften them. After, the loose tissue must be removed from the underside of the skin. Then the pelts need to go through tanning process and are soaked in alum solution. This aqueous solution contain hydrochloric or sulphuric acid. Then the pelts are dried and tanned. After, the pelts are put into a machine that forces oil into the skin so that it can be soft. Pelts then go through process of trimming and cutting. Once again, they are moistened and left to dry. Finally, lining and other finishing steps are needed to finish the garment.

In China

Investigators have discovered the horrifying skinning process in Chinese fur farms. The animals were put into outdoor wire cages even if it was raining, freezing or burning hot in the sun. Most of the animals were just driven crazy. They would chew on their own limbs or throw themselves against the cages. When the skinning time came, the animals are taken from the cages and beaten with metal rods or just slamming them to the ground. After, they are usually hung up by their legs or tails to be skinned alive. If the animals are struggling a lot, then the workers stomp or kick the heads and necks of the poor creatures. After they are skinned, they are put with other skinned bodies. Some of them are still alive and would watch other helpless animals being skinned alive too. Because the skinning process is too gory, visitors are not allowed to visit. Regulations have not been put onto the skinning farms; therefore, the farms can house and skin the animals however they want.

Because fur comes from animals, hunting for these animals ruins the biosphere and the natural habitats. It also disturbs the food chain cycle of the wild animals. ~Juliana