Fur wearer

(watercolor illustration on paper, 2008)

"People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs."
Unknown

"Animal rights activists gives disillusioned feminists an excuse to go back to being women protecting wee creatures without compromising their radical credentials."
Florence King

"No one in the world needs a mink coat but a mink."
Murray Banks

As someone who finds Gandhi's peaceful approach to protesting more suitable for civilized human beings I find the aggression spewing from some of the animal rights activists quite appalling. When a group of individuals is throwing rotten tomatoes at little old ladies in fur coats while screaming about animal rights and spraying passers-by with saliva - it appears to me that they are using the term 'animal rights' in reference to themselves. I think that acting in such unbecoming for a civilized person manner can only turn people away from their cause.

As a proud chinchilla owner I take a different approach to educating people about furry little beings. I talk to them one-on-one about my chinchillas. Like an annoying new mother I tell everyone I meet about all the cute little things my chins do and I always emphasize their intelligence. So far I've been quite successful in persuading a number of people that it's better to have chinchilla as a pet rather than a coat.

Of course, there are those who oppose having exotic animals, (or any animals for that matter), as pets. A few years back I saw a half-naked woman (in the middle of December, that is) sitting in a large cage right in the middle of a street. There was a big sign next to her explaining how cruel it is to keep animals in cages. I looked at the woman for several moments, read her sign, adjusted my winter coat and went home to my chinchillas. I let them out of their specious cages and watched them play. I pictured their lives as they could've been in the wild; constantly searching for food and shelter, pursued by both people and bigger animals... Somehow I didn't feel like a monster for loving them and catering to their every need...