Mink carcus

[auzmink]

Ok, a tough question I guess and maybe we might not have the answer here, but:

 

What do fur farmers do with the mink / fox carcus?

 

My reason for this is lots of quotes suggesting leather is ok, as the whole animal is used, but in fur its just the skin.

Does anyone know if this is true or not? I'm aware chicken bits are fed to minks so using up that waste product but...........

 

Auzmink

[Guest]

I know that Mink Oil is used for a number of things from cosmetics to boot oil.

 

I would bet the Pet food industry is in there somewhere.

 

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[Worker 11811]

The rest of the mink is sent to a rendering plant where the flesh and fat is separated from the bone and boiled down to produce oils and fats for cosmetics and other things like mink oil, as O.F.F. said.

 

The bones are pulverized and used as additives in things like ceramics. Where do you think they get the "bone" for bone china? '

 

The remains from these processes are used to make protein additives for animal feeds.

 

What's left over from these processes are dried and turned into fertilizer for farms.

 

Check out the following video links:

 

http://www.furcommission.com/FAQ.htm#Anchor-35326

 

http://www.furcommission.com/news/newsE68.htm

 

http://208.42.82.253/Chowtime.mov

[Guest]

The second link is superb and "renders" most anti fur rants and opinions moot.

 

Only the "I won't kill any living??? thing" point of view can escape the truth.

 

Those folks quickly die of starvation. Turnips "live"

 

 

 

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[JGalanos]

Anyone else remember those glamorous "Mink Difference" hair spray commercials from the 70's?

[billhenry1234]

who cares?

[White Fox]

Now that you mention that I do kind of remember those!

 

I never quite knew if they were real mink oil, etc. I think they were more or less telling people they were and yet leaving an out for animal rights as well.

 

Long time back though. Very hard to recall.

 

W

[furcoatman]

i remember mink hair spray.

 

it blew me away that they seemed so pro fur just seeing the word mink was enough to get me started.

[JGalanos]

I never quite knew if they were real mink oil, etc.

 

As I recall (I was a young lad at the time) the product was supposed to include "a drop of precious mink oil" ... And implied that if you used it your hair would glisten like the magnificent pelts the model was wearing.

[JGalanos]

who cares?

 

Hi, Bill. Two posts in 2007 and you choose to be rude with one of them. How charming.

[Worker 11811]

But, billhenry, it's so much FUN to watch those silly animal rights chicks choke on their own saliva when you tell them where that tube of lipstick that they are just putting on REALLY comes from!

 

Just where do they think "tallow" comes from?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow

 

They certainly don't pick it off trees!

 

And, other ingredients such as stearic acid, myristic acid, oleic acid and palmitic acid are derived from tallow... which, in turn, comes from rendered cows, pigs, sheep and other animals!

 

Check this out!

 

(Click the Pic.)

 

This is a cosmetic product I just picked up off the shelf in my bathroom.

 

Notice how it says, "Against Animal Testing"??

 

Yet the first two ingredients are "stearic acid" and "myristic acid"!

Translate: "Boiled FAT!"

 

Farther down, you'll read two more interesting ingredients:

 

Coumarin -- The main ingredient in RAT POISON.

Eugenol -- An anesthetic used in dentistry.

 

Granted! They are used in small amounts but they CAN be toxic to humans if ingested or introduced into the blood stream.

 

Furthermore, they are KNOWN to cause CONTACT DERMATITIS in people sensitive to them!

 

Let's get away from picking apart products for their minute ingredients and go back to the larger point... IF those people who stand there and make all these outrageous animal rights claims knew HALF as much about the products they use as they claim to know about "animal rights" they'd probably be puking on their own shoes!

 

And I just LOVE sticking it to people when they try to pull that kind of touchy-feely crap on me!

 

[auzmink]

Worker - thanks for that. I guess we have the quality links to where recylcled foods goes to mink and fox farms, but nothing after. I would imagine the carcases are re-used in some way for protein etc, but I can't find any info. Given ARA moan on about how the whole cow is used, it is important to qualify the same argument for fur farming - ie they are not just bred for fur. If thats the case, the animal is then fully recycled into nature systems.

 

As to 'bill', I guess we have to 'care'. Illogical arguments and rants need to be replied to with quality information and logical reason. So 'do care' is my reply, if we can show 'fur' is positive in all aspects, then truly only the anti-all animal use campaign is left - at which point the arguments become ethical not practical.

 

Auzmink.

[Worker 11811]

The first link on my original post goes to a page from the Fur Commission where they ask the question "What happens to the rest of the mink?" Yes, the answer is brief but it does summarize what everybody else has been saying.

 

Basically, the rest of the mink is rendered in much the same way cows, pigs and chickens are.

 

Now, this is just hearsay on my part but I understand that mink, being carnivorous, will eat their own if the opportunity presents. As I understand, some of the pelted mink are used for food for the others. I don't know if this is completely true or, if so, to what extent but I have no reason to disbelieve the people who told this to me. Take that information for what it's worth.

 

If I can find more links and information on how mink are recycled I'll post them.

[auzmink]

Worker - must have not checked that first link carefully enough. Thanks for that. I appreciate the effort as I think this important bit is the final loop in fur being recyclable and a renewable resource.

 

As to cans of oil in faux fur - I hear more on the TV these days about oil use, wasting it, etc, so I think the argument is turning full cycle. Maybe time to invest in wool farming!

 

Auzmink

[wallee]

 

Maybe time to invest in wool farming!

 

Auzmink

 

PETA will hate you for that too.

 

Flocks usually consist of thousands of sheep, making it impossible to give individual attention to their needs;

 

I'm not really sure what they want us to do with sheep though.

[Worker 11811]

:sheepshag:

 

 

:sheepshag:

[White Fox]

As I understand, some of the pelted mink are used for food for the others.

 

I do hope that this is NOT the case. That idea with livestock has produced some very, very bad results!

 

W

[Worker 11811]

It was an uncle of mine who told me that many years ago.

When I was a kid, he told me that one of his buddies owned a mink farm and that's what they did.

 

You know how uncles talk.

Could have been an isolated case. It could have been something that was done infrequently or it could have been something that was once done but the practice has been discontinued.

 

This is why I was careful to be clear about it being hearsay.

[Guest]

One good thing about Fitch and Otter.

 

They eat fish, not each other.

 

 

OFF

[frugalfurguy]

 

... if we can show 'fur' is positive in all aspects ...

 

 

First of all, Auzmink, thanks for caring.

 

I know it doesn't make me popular here, but I don't see many things in this universe that are totally positive or totally good--certainly not myself, certainly not my species. Remember Planet of the Apes? I see fur as a quintessentially human artifact. As such it reflects our own moral ambiguity. It has desirable characteristics which we here feel attracted to. But so long as our species is a predator whose offspring requires some 18 years of compassionate nurturing for survival, we're going to have conflicts like these.

 

For me it's been a struggle accepting myself the way I am. It's helped to acknowledge I wasn't born to be perfect. I'm human, and part of that package includes flaws and weaknesses. I want to create space where our disagreements don't have to require that we banish one another from a sense of belonging. The way I see things, there's a human impulse to be attracted to fur, but that doesn't necessarily mean all humans have it. From the nurturing side of humanity, it also makes sense that there'd be a human impulse to abhor furs when one makes a connection between the artifact and the acts of destruction required to make it.

 

Part of recovering from a childhood in a family that didn't very well tolerate deviance from a set of religious doctrines has been accepting my own spirituality. That process allowed me to recognize that I'm not in charge of other people's spirituality. Before, I used to see it as a duty to convert everyone else to agnosticism or atheism. When I proclaimed my rights to accept and revise my own views of what's in charge (if anything) of my universe I also came to accept that others have a right to their best perceptions of that mystery. It's allowed me to start to set boundaries when it seems to me someone is threatening to impose Christianity, for instance, on me. I can take care of myself without destroying them.

 

Believe it or not, all this stuff about discovering my own spirituality does have something to do with this topic. When I see us trying to create unassailable arguments, I wonder if we're not being the same kind of zealots we see in our opponents. When I think of that possibility I feel dull, depleted. I don't want to reconstruct the family system I grew up in where only the orthodox were accepted. I'm dealing with circles of people each with violently opposed orthodoxies: fur is absolutely saintly, fur is the epitome of evil.

 

Is there a greater circle that embraces both us and them? I believe so. And I'm determined not to destroy that greater circle. It is, after all, the source of my accepting myself, flaws and all.

 

As they say in lots of organizations

[Guest]

frug is spot on.

 

If we took all this (life) too seriously we would blow our brains out anyway

 

 

 

 

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