I have been searching for a long length down filled coat in anticipation of some possibly cold weather for the Puppy Mill protest next weekend. I was VERY cold at the last one I attended, and want to be able to concentrate on holding and waving signs, not shivering. I have been many places, and, being somewhat "bargain oriented"(cheap) I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for one. I found a huge selection of them at Burlington Coat Factory in Castleton. I was APPALLED to see that 75-80% of them had real fur collars. Most were "fox" fur from China. We all know that many times that really means "dog" and other domesticated animal fur from China.
It creeped me out to even be touching some of it as I moved the coats on the racks, and I know some people in the store thought I was nuts because I was telling myself out loud..."Oh no, I will NOT be buying that," and other such statements. Luckily I found a long, white Calvin Klein coat that was exactly what I had been looking for. No fur anywhere near it. Yes, it's white, but I figured it might stand out well at the protests. When I got home I looked on the HSUS website and discovered that Calvin Klein was one of the designers who agreed to be fur-free, and should be by spring of 2008. There are a lot of others who are already fur-free and some, like CK that are phasing it out. There a number of other links on that page that describe the horrors of the fur industry, as well as "faux fur" which is often raccoon dog fur. Both Jay Z and Sean John (P Diddy or whatever his moniker is these days) have used this raccoon dog fur in their "fashions." I will get down off my soapbox as soon as I tell you that I got the $250 CK coat for $52 because it had a little pen mark on the collar.
http://www.hsus.org/furfree/fashion/retailers/furfree_retailers_designers.html