Shaving bunnies

[bloc]

When I first started making hats a long time ago I persuaded myself that the process of making rabbit fur felt didn't necessarily involve any rabbits being hurt. After all, it was only the fur being used, not the skin.

It would have been nice but later on I realised that shaving bunnies was an impractical idea. I was told that much of the rabbit fur was a byproduct of the meat industry in Europe. Fair enough.

Recently I have seen a couple of websites proclaiming that no animals are hurt in the process of felt making. Here is one:

http://www.szaszi.com/en/kunst.htm

This isn't true is it? Are hatmakers trying to make their product sound more sympathetic by pulling the wool (or the felt) over the customer's eyes? Or are there factories tenderly shaving rabbits, beavers, nutrias etc etc to make vegetarian friendly felt? I have a lovely picture in my head.

 

[Tomasso]

Vicunas are shorn rather than slaughtered these days so I suppose that it's possible that rabbits are treated in the same manner.

 

[Shangas]

Rabbits are damn cute, but here in Australia, they're considered a huge pain in the butt. So I don't think anyone here would be walking around with a "Save the Bunnies" placard outside the AKUBRA factory anytime soon.

 

[hatsRme]

"Save the Beavers," possibly?

Let's NOT go there...

 

[TheDane]

I'm no expert in bunny-shaving, but I believe it would be necessary to shave the rabbit naked to retrieve the under-fur too. It's a cute story, but I am reluctant to believe it. To my knowledge Cashmere goat beard-hair is the only fur for hats that is retrieved from living animals - and without pain.

To me the problem is not that the animal is killed. Even if it took minutes to kill the animal it would be a minor problem - compared to the so called "life" of a caged fur-animal. That's usually a living Hell. Just as the "life" of the one chicken used to make 40 pounds of chicken-nuggets.

We are 5,000,000 Danes, but we produce 27,000,000 pigs and 180,000 tons of chicken meat every year. Every single day 25,000 piglets die as the waste-part of the production. An industrial poultry production plant is one of the places you visit only once in your life! "A byproduct of the meat industry in Europe" should not be a comfort.

Wild animals suffer when trapped and caged fur-animals suffer while "living" - and so do most stabled meat-animals. That's life in a modern society ... take it or leave it. If you won't or can't take it - forget all about fur hats and go vegan. If you choose to go vegan and only use plant based materials for shoes and clothing, don't forget to consider what impact that will have on wildlife in the areas where your food and clothes are grown. Another thing to remember is that fabrics like Gore-Tex (a prefered fabric by many environmentalists) is one of the most polluting fabrics produced by man.

Modern life is very complicated, but many different over simplyfied and more or less "religious" views battle to make it look otherwise. "You're damned if you do - and you're damned if you don't" [huh]

 

[bloc]

I agree that modern life is complicated. And I find people's attitudes to killing different sorts of animals is interesting. No-one seems to have a problem killing a rat (or having one killed) but the idea of killing rabbits is anathema. Except in Australia it seems...

 

[TheDane]

I agree that modern life is complicated. And I find people's attitudes to killing different sorts of animals is interesting. No-one seems to have a problem killing a rat (or having one killed) but the idea of killing rabbits is anathema. Except in Australia it seems...

In Australia someone imported a couple of rabbits - and now they're all over the place. The same with Nutria in some of the Southern states in US. I was told that some Scottish officer couldn't live without the plant "Scottish Broom" of his old country. He imported a few plants and now they are threatening the entire wild bush in Australia.

The Kamchatca crap was set out in the Nothern Ice Sea to be fished by arctic Russian fishermen. Now they've moved North of Norway and are on their way down to Denmark - while the natural fauna gets extinct.

Our way of life produce pests (aside from ourselves ). Pests are pests, and who have trouble killing pests?

 

[Tomasso]

I'm no expert in bunny-shaving

I once dated a girl who worked as a bunny at the Playboy Club in Chicago. The bunny costume she had to wear required her nether regions to be 'fur free', so periodic shaving was needed. I was often called upon to undertake this task. So, I guess I could claim a certain level of expertise in this area.

 

[TheDane]

I too have more than a few clips of the sort on my inner Technicolor, but I think I'll save them for another forum

 

[alanfgag]

I had an elderly homeless woman stop me the other day and say "How are you doing handsome." You reach a certain age and you take what you can get.

ps - the website in the original post has been posted here a number of times over the years - comments followed on the detailing and the prices, which are quite high. Don't believe we have ever seen a live sample.

 

[TheDane]

I had an elderly homeless woman stop me the other day and say "How are you doing handsome." You reach a certain age and you take what you can get.

:eusa_clap lol :eusa_clap I wrote that book!

 

[TheDane]

ps - the website in the original post has been posted here a number of times over the years - comments followed on the detailing and the prices, which are quite high. Don't believe we have ever seen a live sample.

Just noticed that the hatter is the same as on this video, saved among my favorites

 

[TomS]

I had an elderly homeless woman stop me the other day and say "How are you doing handsome." You reach a certain age and you take what you can get.

I just spit my coffee!

 

[HeyMoe]

Kinda sounds like the WWII Stetson "Vita-felt" process.

 

[TheDane]

Kinda sounds like the WWII Stetson "Vita-felt" process.

Naahhh ... sounds more like a strategic marketing story (read: lie) to me.

"The felt is made out of shorn hair of rabbits, wild rabbits, nutria, beaver, mink, sable and chinchilla. Only the hair is used, the animal is not hurt."

Shearing wild animals is a bit hard for me to imagine [huh]

 

[Lotsahats]

"Save the Beavers," possibly?

Let's NOT go there...

Are you advocating shaving beav--no, I can't. I just can't.

 

[HeyMoe]

Naahhh ... sounds more like a strategic marketing story (read: lie) to me.

"The felt is made out of shorn hair of rabbits, wild rabbits, nutria, beaver, mink, sable and chinchilla. Only the hair is used, the animal is not hurt."

Shearing wild animals is a bit hard for me to imagine [huh]

I know many folks that grow Angora rabbits so they may shear them and spin the fur into yarn. I would think that the same could be true for the other animals listed - with the exception of the wild rabbits.

Although it does remind me of a plan one of the college students came up with at the college where I was in charge of security: The school mascot was a beaver and he wanted to have a "shave your beaver" event at the school where wild beavers would be placed in a telephone booth sized box with a willing student, a can of shaving cream and a bic razor. The student who shaved the most beavers with the least amount of personal trauma in an allotted time would be the winner.

Sadly for youtube, the idea was squashed by the hippies at the school as was his follow up idea of "spank your beaver" which followed similar lines except involved the use of a blindfold and other sensory depriving means to make the event more difficult.

EDIT: I should also mention that this character went on to work for the IRS after graduation. Go figure.

 

[alanfgag]

More than you want to know here.

 

[TheDane]

The school mascot was a beaver and he wanted to have a "shave your beaver"

Now my inner Technicolor is really running in overdrive! My guess is that Aaron's is too. Well, I've heard that the practice is very popular among younger people of today - but as Charlie wrote: Don't let's go there lol

Yes, I know that people shear furry animals, but it's still hard to imagine it done on wild animals. Are beavers held captured for harvesting their fur? I didn't know that. I know, mink and chinchilla are kept caged, but at least mink are killed and skinned. Actually, I think the kill could be seen as an act of mercy.

Maybe the hippies saved quite a few school mates from a very unpleasant encounter with a nonfriendly rodent. The local doctor probably had good reasons to be annoyed, though

 

[Ordinary Guy]

So they shave bunnies for the fur ... Well then how do they get Moth balls ??? < runs away and hides >