Doll Clothes and Accessories made from Fur and Leather

I'd be a little shocked by seeing a doll in real fur or leather. But speaking as someone who stopped eating lamb and veal a few years ago (all those baby animals!) I really don't see anything wrong with a doll having either. Most likely, I'd think most outfits were made of faux materials. I could care less about leather, but more about fur. But I also have to ask the owners who must dress their dolls in something so authentic - why? Sure, you like the look of leather and fur, but there are always really nice fake pieces. You're not making clothes for yourself - it's for a doll! I don't like using fur, though.

 

Would you be insulted or shocked to see a doll wearing clothes made from animal byproduct (furs and leathers and such)?
I can't say I would be insulted, OR shocked, really. I think, depending on the amount of the material, it may be a little...over the top. After all, faux materials are typically cheaper! Now, that said, people spend LOTS of money on dolls and I don't find it unreasonable to want the best for them.

Does it make a difference if the byproducts came from animals we eat?
For me, this does make a difference. If the material is from an animal that you could go to the grocery store and buy the meat of, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that it's not a big deal to me. Cows aren't going to be slaughtered and used ONLY for their materials; that would be a great loss to the farmer/rancher/whatever. That cow will also be used to feed multiple people, which is simply the circle of life. However, when you kill...let's say a snake, it probably won't be used the same way. Now I realize that some people DO eat snake meat, but chances are that when that snake skin is sold, the remaining parts of the snake are going to be trashed. This is less okay with me.

Would it make a difference if you bought the leather/fur from a crafts store (like Hobby Lobby or Michael's)?
Not really. Leather is leather and fur is fur. However, I would be concerned about the raising and treatment of the animal, but that's a completley different debate...

Would it make a difference if you bought the byproduct straight from the distributor, whom you knew to use all parts of the animal?
YES. It would make me feel MUCH better, actually. I think I already touched on this in a previous answer.​

 

This topic was covered pretty extensively in the debate about mohair wigs.

 

Emby Quinn:
you know i alread am pro-fur...but this is a great point ive never even thought of! thanks you!

 

Would you be insulted or shocked to see a doll wearing clothes made from animal byproduct (furs and leathers and such)?
I wouldn't really be insulted or shocked to see a doll wearing furst and leathers. However, you do need to realize fur is in NO WAY a byproduct and animals are bred for fur ONLY. I'd love a real fur wig. But I'd rather have it without skin. I do strongly believe it's the owner's choice to see if they want their doll to wear fur or leather.

Does it make a difference if the byproducts came from animals we eat (cows, rabbits, pigs, sheep, etc.)?
Yes. If the fur would come from animals that the rest will go into other kinds of production, I would have less trouble with it.

Would it make a difference if you bought the leather/fur from a crafts store (like Hobby Lobby or Michael's)?
No. The animal would still have been killed for the fur and I wouldn't know what happened to the rest of the animal.

Would it make a difference if you bought the byproduct straight from the distributor, whom you knew to use all parts of the animal?
Yes. If I knew the distributor to use all parts of the animal I would have less of a problem with using fur and leather. Like I said, animals being bred for fur, I'm against that. If every part is used, I don't mind so much.

Or is it all the same to you?
Definitely not.

 

Would you be insulted or shocked to see a doll wearing clothes made from animal byproduct (furs and leathers and such)?
Nope... it the owners choice not mine... I cant change it.
Does it make a difference if the byproducts came from animals we eat (cows, rabbits, pigs, sheep, etc.)?
Ofcourse. It a grey area that I beileve strongly in... Fur that kill only for it fur is wrong... but if the animal been killed for it meat. why waste.
Would it make a difference if you bought the leather/fur from a crafts store (like Hobby Lobby or Michael's)?
Yeah the cost would be higher.
Would it make a difference if you bought the byproduct straight from the distributor, whom you knew to use all parts of the animal?
yeah, I would be more than happy to do that and let my little seth wear it...
Or is it all the same to you?

 

Would you be insulted or shocked to see a doll wearing clothes made from animal byproduct (furs and leathers and such)?
Yes, absolutely. It's bad enough that human beings still use the skin and hair of animals to keep themselves warm, but to put those things on a doll (who doesn't get cold and certainly won't care if synthetics are used) is just outrageously selfish and pointless. I live in the US, where dogs are house pets and cows are food. If I'd be appalled at seeing a person had skinned their dog to make a coat, why shouldn't I feel the same way about leather?

Does it make a difference if the byproducts came from animals we eat (cows, rabbits, pigs, sheep, etc.)?
No. Eating animals is another rant for another day, but it doesn't make me feel any more positive about fur/leather to know that the animal was served for dinner after its slaughter and skinning.

Would it make a difference if you bought the leather/fur from a crafts store (like Hobby Lobby or Michael's)?
Nope.

Would it make a difference if you bought the byproduct straight from the distributor, whom you knew to use all parts of the animal?
Or is it all the same to you?
To me, it's all equally morally wrong. That being said, if you absolutely love fur and leather, I'm not going to spray red paint on your doll. It's your choice how you dress your dolls - and yourself - and your right to not be harassed for it. I'm a long-time vegan, but friends who have made a different choice are welcome to hang their fur coats in my closet and eat their burgers at my table. Just don't expect to leave without a bit of a (usually good-humored!) lecture.

 

Does it make a difference if the byproducts came from animals we eat (cows, rabbits, pigs, sheep, etc.)?
Let me start by saying that I am against fur, but I accept leather.
Humans do not need fur to survive, but we are omnivores and we require meat (or it's substitutes) in our diet. This means that we will keep on killing animals for their meat, and I believe that when we take their lives, it is in fact our duty to use as much of the animal's body as possible.

Would you be insulted or shocked to see a doll wearing clothes made from animal byproduct (furs and leathers and such)?
Shocked or insulted are not the right words I think... I am not shocked or insulted by seeing people in fur either. I just don't think highly of them and I wouldn't think highly of an owner who dresses their doll in real fur either.

That said, I'd like to state that I in fact own two doll outfits adorned with animal byproducts... Soom Galena and Soom Yrie default outfits: I was shocked when I discovered Yrie outfit is adorned with real rabbit fur and very unhappy. I would never have ordered it, nor Galena's outfit adorned with real feathers (I was sure they were fake... stupid me; I can at least hope the feathers were picked of living birds), if I had known this. But I already have it and there's nothing I can do so I keep on using it, but I am much more careful with my doll clothes purchases now.

 

Would you be insulted or shocked to see a doll wearing clothes made from animal byproduct (furs and leathers and such)?
Insulted and shocked - no. Upset - sometimes. Most people go to a craft or fabric store and buy a pelt, with no care about how the animal was raised or whether it was humanely kept. I have no problem with people who hunt for food and use the pelt or bones or sinew. People that just go buy it with no regard for the life that was spent - it bothers me. But I keep it to myself, because these are my opinions and my prejudices and thus, my problem. Not my doll - not my job to tell them what to or not to wear.

Does it make a difference if the byproducts came from animals we eat (cows, rabbits, pigs, sheep, etc.)?
Not to me. Most meat animals are raised in factory farms under disgusting, inhumane conditions. If it was well thought out and planned, and an ethical decision made before purchase - say from a small, ethical farmer who raised the animals humanely or a hunter who ate the game - that would make a difference for me.

Would it make a difference if you bought the leather/fur from a crafts store (like Hobby Lobby or Michael's)?
I wouldn't buy leather or fur from a store like that, period. It would influence my opinion of someone else's outfit/wig if I knew where it came from, yes. It also influences me when I see a poorly made or cut leather/fur item that didn't take best advantage of the pelt to keep waste to a minimum.

Would it make a difference if you bought the byproduct straight from the distributor, whom you knew to use all parts of the animal? Or is it all the same to you?
Definitely not all the same to me. My family are first nations, and they hunt wild game. I volunteer with wildlife/raptor rehab, and we both breed live food (rodents/rabbits/bugs) and use frozen foods and roadkill for diet. I have no problem with any of that. I have no problem with ranchers who keep their animals in humane environments. I have no issue with ethical leathers or home-tanned leathers/furs. I don't buy from stores who can't tell me who the distributor of their furs/leathers is and I definitely don't buy if the product comes from a factory farm.

Would I use leather/fur on my dolls if it met my standards of ethics? Yes. I intend to have a brown leather coat for Mini!Mal and a taupe leather jacket for Hatter because I have yet to find a fake leather that would drape or hang properly. However, I'll be buying it from a source I trust so I know the animals had healthy lives and didn't die solely for their skins.

/soapbox.

 

To those of you objecting to using leather and/or fur: Would you still object if you knew the animal was unharmed in the process? I've seen all sorts of crafty items made from dog hair leftover from grooming. I've even seen a thread about using human hair to make a doll wig! The girl had just chopped off a bunch of her long hair, and wanted to know if it was possible to turn it into a doll wig.

Not trying to judge or harass. But I've seen a couple of "all fur/leather is bad" blanket statements, and I wanted to know if your reaction would be different.

 

I wear leather shoes myself, but although I am not a vegetarian I rarely eat meat because I don't like the texture of it.

I don't wear fur and wouldn't buy anything made from fur because whereas I can see that leather can be a by-product of animals used for food, I don't think that this is the case with most fur.

I wouldn't want to buy for my dolls, or wear anything myself that had been created after a baby animal had been hit on the head with a club or similar.

 

I do not mind items made from leather or bone coming from industries which provide the meat we eat. I am really unempressed though with the use of real fur.

 

I would never wear fur myself or dress my doll in fur. It's not a matter of it's a bi product or not, animals are skinned alive for fur. They are not always even properly unconscious or killed afterwards so can be left to have a slow painful death.

 

Personally, no. I own a coat myself that has both leather and fur so I'd find it laughable, not to mention a bit hypocritical, if fur/leather on a doll had any emotional reaction from me at all. Would I actually buy it for my own doll though? Probably not. But only because of expenses. It's much cheaper to buy fake. XD

 

I dont like fur becouse you newer know whitch animal it is and how we kill them,

 

I have no problems with wearing fur and leather myself, so I certainly wouldn't have any problems with seeing them on a doll. Anyone who puts a mohair wig on their doll has no right to be squeamish over the use of fur and leather, anyway.

I'm afraid I am going to make quite a few people unhappy with my next statement however: those leather shoes you wear? That leather jacket? Came from the hide of an animal raised solely for its skin. If its flesh was eaten at all, it would have been as pet food; it certainly wouldn't have been consumed by humans, just as the hides of beef cattle etc are not used for leather. Hide animals are not the same as food animals. Animals that are raised for meat have inferior hides for tanning and leatherworking purposes; the meat of animals raised for their skins is too tough and stringy for human consumption.

Basically, if you wear leather, it is idealogically identical to wearing fur. It is ignorant hypocrisy to wear leather but refuse to wear fur.

For the record, I've worked in an abattoir where I was a butcher, cutting up the carcasses into joints of meat post-slaughter, and the first thing I had to do was skin the carcass. Trust me, the pile of hides left from skinning animals for meat would make pretty poor leather. at most it might go into pet food or glue manufacture, though that happens less these days with modern petrochemical-derived solvents and glues being regarded as superior to organic glues.

So, for the record: I wear leather and fur and eat meat fully cognizant of where they came from. And I have no problem with using leftover scraps of leather and fur for dressing dolls with; certainly as has been pointed out upthread, it's better for the planet than using synthetic fabrics and fake furs. Our dolls are pretty environmentally-unfriendly in their manufacture; I like to redress that balance a little when I come to clothe my dolls. SO if it looks like one of my dolls is wearing real leather or fur? It probably is.

 

I'd like to know the basis for this statement, I really would. It doesn't seem that skinning animals which are alive, even unconscious, would be very effective. Unless heavily sedated most animals including humans tend to react to pain by moving away from it.

That said - I'm all for fur, though I'd rather get mine from a supplier or vintage fur. I do tend to have a problem with fox fur... even though most of the time the meat doesn't go to waste.

 

Would you be insulted or shocked to see a doll wearing clothes made from animal byproduct (furs and leathers and such)?
Not really. I'm not socked when I see people wearing these things, although it makes more sense on people. Dolls don't need to worry about warmth or durability, but sometimes fake just doesn't cut it.

Does it make a difference if the byproducts came from animals we eat (cows, rabbits, pigs, sheep, etc.)?
Honestly, to me it does. I know, as Arkady already stated, that the cow for my leather jacket was never a hamburger and vice versa, but I still feel better about using fur and skins from animals that, hypothetically, could have been food. My theory is that if I wouldn't consider eating it, I have no business wearing it. So, personally, using any fur other than rabbit would bother me.

Would it make a difference if you bought the leather/fur from a crafts store (like Hobby Lobby or Michael's)?
Nope.

Would it make a difference if you bought the byproduct straight from the distributor, whom you knew to use all parts of the animal?
Defiantly. I would feel a lot better knowing that all parts of the animal were used, although I'm not sure that it ever really works that way.

 

Sorry I was under the impression this happened to all animals that are used for fur, I'm not sure how common it is. There's some information on the Peta website if you want to check, the video is very graphic so you might not want to watch it.

 

I take everything PETA says with a very hefty dose of salt. Any organisation that claims to love animals then culls every single stray animal handed into their shelters, dumping their carcasses illegally to boot, is just an organisation of hypocrites and liars in my books, frankly.

I suspect we are now at risk of drifting slightly off-topic here, BTW; we should bear in mind that we are referring to the ethics of using leather and fur for dolls, not delving into animal rights issues in general or trying to persuade others of the rights or wrongs of the fur industry.