DEAR Jasminda,

I recently inherited my grandmother’s fur coat.

It is a beautiful item, but I can’t imagine wearing it for ethical reasons. I also don’t want to sell it because of the sentimental value.

It seems a waste to just leave it hanging in the cupboard.

What should I do?

Matilda W.

 

Dear Matilda,

Your grandmother sounds as though she was a stylish woman and no doubt came from an era where the ethical issues of fur coats were perhaps not as well researched.

Either that or she was a sociopath who enjoyed the idea of wrapping herself in the skin of slaughtered animals.

Regardless, you are stuck with an item that is impractical and, as you say, leads to an ethical dilemma.

In this situation, I can only suggest taking the path that doesn’t cause any further harm. I remember a friend having the same issue.

She kept her coat in a box in the top of her wardrobe.

Unfortunately, a rabble of rats (which may be the most adorable, alliterative collective noun in existence) nested in it, so it ended up as a rat-infested bin item.

If you currently wear other animal by-products (leather, for example), it could be argued that this is no different.

The coat is already in existence and the 300 chinchillas, 250 squirrels, 60 minks or 40 foxes it took to make it are already dead, so you can’t cause them any further harm.

Having researched this a little further, there are organisations that accept fur coat donations that are then repurposed to provide warmth and comfort to orphaned animals.

This seems to be a way to keep the memory of your grandmother alive for all the right reasons, while perhaps sustaining the life of other animals and offering them a better fate than those that went into the coat.

Carpe diem, Jasminda.