Letter: Fur fading from fashion focus

Monday, Dec. 7, 1998 | 11:46 a.m.

The fur industry is desperately trying to hang on by marketing fur trim and dyed or sheared fur and painting a rosy picture of a humane, revitalized industry. But these tactics are not working. Consumers are turning to the many attractive alternatives to fur that can be found in stores all over the world, which are actually warmer (Kapok and Gore-Tex) and just as beautiful.

If people will remember what happened with the whaling industry, once kerosene oil was discovered, we no longer needed the oil produced from whales, and these animals became appreciated, instead of hunted, and technology moved forward.

With the millennium upon us, I am confident that society will increasingly value compassion and humane treatment of animals above the vanity of fashion and an outdated symbol of wealth and power.

Cindy Minghelli

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