[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=2]Sunday August 10th on Channel 4 at 10:00pm
Quote:
"In the 1980s the fur industry was brought to its knees by the anti-fur lobby. But now fur is back on the catwalks, in the magazines and on the high street. Today around 400 designers use fur, compared with only 45 in 1985. The global fur industry is now worth around £7billion a year.
In Kill it, Skin it, Wear it chef Merrilees Parker (pictured) attempts to find out the truth behind this remarkable fashion revival. She goes on a journey to discover if it's possible to source ethical fur as we source ethical food. She gains access to a Danish fur farm, goes fur trapping in Idaho and sees images of animal suffering that she never wants to see again.
Beginning her journey in Denmark, Merrilees is invited to film inside a mink farm. Accompanied throughout by two PR minders, Merrilees is initially impressed by the seemingly "humane, soundless and bloodless" way in which the mink are killed and processed. But is it really the case that this is the standard method? Or is it all a PR job?
Back in London, Merrilees meets Mark Glover, the director of Respect for Animals. He shows her a very different side of the story. As she watches shocking and graphic footage of animals in suffering as they are kept and killed for fur, Merrilees is moved to tears. And the images continue to haunt her as she wonders whether any of the celebrities pictured wearing fur in magazines would do so if they had seen what she has seen.
But is there still a middle ground where animals can spend their time in the wild before they're killed? To find out, Merrilees' journey finally takes her fur-trapping in the wild with retired Vietnam-sniper Johnny Wisenhurst. Together, they trap and skin a beaver. "If I was ever going to wear fur it would be that kind of animal that I'd feel comfortable wearing," says Merrilees.
The chef returns to Denmark to a huge fur warehouse, from which many designers source their fur, to see whether she can trace the trapped fur which makes up around 20 per cent of the market. She is horrified to discover that, "There are loads of guarantees on the quality of pelts, but virtually no guarantees on good welfare practices."
So, is it ever really possible to wear fur without a guilty conscience? And will Merrilees ever wear fur again?"
Yeah but I think anyone whose pro-fur should definatly watch it, and anyone who is anti-fur should atleast have it on a channel somewhere in the house to up the views.
The more views it gets the more likely people are to do animal right programmes, thus more coverage
So wait, it's okay with her to take a life for her fashion, as long as the animal was wild?
Why is this not making sense to me?
How is the animal trapped? How is it killed? How is it any more humane? Isn't having your life robbed for something frivolous as fashion suffering enough?
From the way its been advertised on TV defiantly looks like its going to be anti-fur based...i.e they show the exact process and the many ways fur is got, the presenter in scenes finds it pretty horrific which I think is why its going to be anti slanted.
I just had another thought. These animals that lived in the wild before caught and skinned, what if that sort of thing caught on? Like what if wild animal fur was a hit and suddenly the demand increased (because it would be advertised as more humane), would wild animal populations be seriously affected?
I guess I should watch this, because I am really confused.
We only have 1 T.V in our house to up the views but I'm afraid i might throw up watching it. I definitely won't be aloud to have it on unless I'm watching or some one will change the channel. I hope it is anti fur. Once i was in the town square where i live (Ludlow) and there was a continental market on. There was a stall with like 50 fur coats on show, the minute i saw them i knew they were real. My mum talked to the stall owner and he caught, skinned and made all the coats himself. How could people do that for a living! After seeing that it put me off anything to do with fur. it makes me feel bad when i look at it. I never have and never will wear real fur.
I am anti-fur, and i find it interesting that most people that i have met that are pro-fur are not affected by the gruesome images of animals being caught from the wild, or skinned alive in breeding facilities. They are impervious. They just kind of shrug their shoulders and say "so what? its just an animal." As if humans are the only mammals on earth with a nervous system that can feel pain. These selfish people make me sick.
08-04-08, 12:44 pm
Not Ranked. Helpful AND tactful post? : 0 
Kill it..Skin it..Wear it 
