Bearskin

[arctic hobo]

Thanks bambodoggy... check your PM.
Thanks also Abbe - I think it's a shame that the dealers feel pressured to keep quiet. While I'm against illegal fur, and I'm not at all happy about high street fashion fur (or just against fashion :shock: ), these people have a right to keep their living.

 

[nomade]

In this day and age of massive extinction of wildlife around the planet, I am dead against the killing of any wild creature for whatever reason (apart from being a member of a small community of hunters gatherers, very few left these days).

London Zoo keeps a few animal skins for members of the public to touch (all from zoo animals who one day and...Gosh! If you never touched such a skin in your lifetime, you've missed something in life! It's unbelievable! It must be so nice to sleep on one of those skins in a tepee somewhere in an arctic region...

And yet I am against the hunting/killing of wildlife...contradiction...

 

[nomade]

In this day and age of massive extinction of wildlife around the planet, I am dead against the killing of any wild creature for whatever reason (apart from being a member of a small community of hunters gatherers, very few left these days).

London Zoo keeps a few animal skins for members of the public to touch (all from zoo animals who died of old age). So I happened to touch a bearskin and a reindeerskin one day and...Gosh! If you never touched such a skin in your lifetime, you've missed something in life! It's unbelievable! It must be so nice to sleep on one of those skins in a tepee somewhere in an arctic region...

And yet I am against the hunting/killing of wildlife...contradiction...

 

[EdS]

Nomade,

I'm with you on this one, especially as there are viable alternatives -especially in the western world.

For own use if your living a traditional life ofhunter gathering well ok - but I stress the word traditional.

 

[bambodoggy]

Anything endangered should be left well alone. It's interesting to note that black bear populations in the US are rising faster than they can be controlled so for me there's less of an issue here.

I'm not a fan of killing for the sake of it or large scale commercially but if the skin is going to be used like Arctic Hobo uses his, as a garment while in the arctic then I have no issues at all... I was in Russia when I was 14 and everyone there wears furs...not for fashion but just for the cold...synthetics just can't beat it!

And even if synthetics could beat it....what is the cost to the earth of making the synthetic's in the first place...fosil fuels burned etc etc...

 

[nomade]

I agree Bambodoggy, it's a question of abundance of wildlife. If a species becomes VERY abundant you are not endangering it by hunting a few individuals.

Eds I completely agree with you. I was only expressing a feeling, a fantasy. I would never indulge to this animal skin and tepee fantasy for real, it remains a fantasy and a dream. Unless a species has really picked up to huge numbers (remains a rare occurrence, like the Black bear which has a faster natural reproduction system (more cubs) than other bear species)

 

[arctic hobo]

nomade, I don't want to boast but you're right - it's something special. And you don't half pay for it too! It is a black bear skin so please everybody I'm not doing anything wrong! I made sure of that when I bought it. Though when I have had my bag searched with it in (twice!) and I spent forever patiently explaining to suspicious Customs officials that it's perfectly legal (I'm sure you've all seen those cases of tiger skins etc that have been confiscated in airports). Although I was searched in the US nobody said a word - I suppose they are quite used to it and know the difference well.
I bought it in Russia (although weirdly it is an american skin) where they are very widely used in winter, as you say Phil. There is nothing to beat them for arctic clothing - and one skin is all I'll ever need. And you make a good point about the cost of making the synthetics.
It's a coat by the way, not just a skin. I don't mean to cause an argument! :?:

 

[bambodoggy]

): lol....I was worried there for a moment that I'd started an arguement but it seems we're all pretty much of the same idea... that's nice, it's good to be in a place where you can air your views and although sometimes challenged you're never shot down for them....

Thanks all.... :super:

 

[ChrisKavanaugh]

laws regarding animal products are in a constant flux responding to populations and pressures. Anyone owning any animal pelt, skull etc. should establish physical proof of A. provenance B. date of acquisition. A rhino horn dagger brought home by a greatgrandfather in the Great War for example. Do you have a photograph of him in uniform standing next to T.E. lawrence wearing it? Is it listed in any insurance documents, estate inventories, wills? To buy a contemporary rhino horn product today is unconscionable. To make historical artifacts cultural pariahs only makes past use an abstraction. I had a coyote pelt, skull and examples of the infamous 'coyote/wolf getter' poison traps that were so horribly indiscriminiate. I used these materials to help educate people about the coyote. I had my share of PETA activists who demanded I destroy the assembly. One day I received a call from Fish and game. One of the students I spoke to found AN ENTIRE CASE of these lethal and now banned spring devises in her grandfather's barn. Nobody knew what they were anymore, or their potential danger. My assembly is now publicly displayed at the local parks office.

 

[Squidders]

I ate crocodile last weekend... It tasted like chicken that had spent its life eating fish... very strange!

I doubt that the rest of the animal was used to make anything more practical than some snazzy cowboy boots though. Maybe some teeth around a Croc Dundee hat.

I think practicality has a lot to do with how we feel about wearing a dead animal. Is the animal abundant, was the animal killed in a swift manner, is the animal responsible for some past indiscretion against people. In areas with freezing temperatures, there really is no comparable material for insulation than dead animal... Only when we remove that clothing from the area does it lose context and practical value.

I personally don't think I would like to wear or own a part of an animal so majestic, I fully understand that people would and for many reasons such as Masai people hunting a lion as a right of passage into manhood... Its horses for courses.

I hope your fur serves you well and will keep you warm long after the donating bear would have died anyway :biggthump