Is it possible to buy 'ethical fur'?

Question

I enjoy crafting leather armour. As part of an Orc design I am going for, I would like to buy some animal fur to complete the brutish/primal look. I have bought several faux furs off ebay, but they either look incredibly cheap, or they "shed" a lot of hair. So I turned to authentic animal furs, which definitely look much better.

I decided to google around and see whether some furs are the byproduct of keeping an animal for other purposes such as consumption- i.e. I am trying not to support any farms that hold animals just for pelts. A lot of the furs on ebay are rabbit fur. In some of the item descriptions, the sellers explain what the rabbits are kept for and it seems harmless to buy some.

But I remain unsure of the practice of selling fur and whether it might be unfairly demonised (and is actually not that bad), or whether there is no such thing as "ethical fur". So I relay that question to other crafts(wo)men that may have used fur in the past or have some more experience with it.

Answer 1

Rework an antique fur coat!

My grandmother keeps encouraging me to take hers, which I really don't want -- but the point is there may be many other such coats that used to be valued and sought after, but are now of very little interest to most potential wearers. Asking around thrift stores or estate sale agents may give some leads; even if they would typically discard such items due to probable disinterest, letting them know you're interested means they could inform you next time an old coat is available.

If it's significantly damaged (moths, mold, just old age), all the better: it is unlikely to have any further use as a coat, but could readily be repurposed into accents on a costume. This is perhaps the most ethical use of all: you're not resulting in any new animals dying (even if humanely raised and slaughtered), but instead salvaging something that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

(But like anything ethical, it's sort of down to your personal perspective and comfort level. There's also an argument to be made that if it wasn't humane and ethical in the first place, it isn't now just because decades passed between the animal's demise and your use of its pelt.)

Answer 2

When I was in New Zealand they sold possum fur as 'doing your thing to make our country better.' Possums being a pest and without predators in the country.

There are likely other countries with animals which are a real pest and get hunted, skinned and prepared as fur.

If you do happen to know people who hunt for food, who prepare their pelts and are willing to sell or share, you might be able to get a much wider range of fur than you would by just going to shops.
I live in a country where only very few people hunt, so I only know this from books and internet.

Answer 3

I'll note that I've not used these products myself. I'm neither vegan nor anti-fur, so the information is based on my understanding of the fur/leather issue.

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You're already making leather armor. Many of the people who are anti-fur are often also anti-leather because they're technically the same thing. While you might certainly attract a few other people (if only for marketing reasons) by offering "ethical" fur that was a byproduct of food rabbits production, I doubt that you're necessarily going to attract that many additional people. You also have to consider that the variety of rabbit used for food and those used for fur may not be the same.

Here's an interesting point of view from The Guardian:

Which is worse? If this were the Ethical Olympics, leather would win on a technicality, being a byproduct of the meat industry. In the minds of many, this makes it OK.

Perhaps because we sanction most leathers, we haven’t come up with a convincing alternative: pleather jostles for space with less impactful versions of real leather, like e-leather (made from scraps), Lite leather (which uses less energy to produce) and even vegetable-tanned leather.

So, if leather wins on a technicality, I guess fur from food rabbits would fall into the same category. Other products that might be in this similar group would be sheepskin and (possibly) goat. Angora goats are often used for fibers in the same way sheep wool is used.

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There is another solution. Have you really looked at a wide variety of faux fur products? Some of them must be pretty good if major brand designers are using them. I strongly recommend that you not find them on Ebay... most sellers on Ebay are Chinese companies selling low-quality product. Do some research and find quality sellers, hopefully someone who will even send you samples.