The Moral Dilemma of My Mother's Mink: Earning Our Place in the World
My mother’s mink stole and two fur collars, one sable, one white, have been hanging in the back of my closet since she died five years ago. I remember how beautiful she looked to me as a child when she wore her mink—how the soft fur graced her bare sloping shoulders and showed off her own mother’s strand of pearls—how proud my father looked as he offered my mother his arm. The mink stole symbolized to my father his ability and desire to provide for my mother (not unlike what his grandfather must have felt when he dragged a deer back to his waiting wife).
Old Fugate Sawmill, Stringtown, OK read essay |
My grandmother never wore a mink stole, though. She had been born in Indian Territory—the child of a laboring, mixed-blood family that logged for the railroad companies as they laid track from Arkansas and Kentucky and Oklahoma west to Washington. Judging from old family photos, they ate a lot of deer meat—and rabbit. Members of the weasel family, no doubt, provided food and fur and oil. Families of old had far more intimate relationships with the weasel family than our family ever did. My mother (like millions of other modern women) used medical and cosmetic products that included mink oil, which has been a coveted oil since the paths of man and mink first crossed—intimate uses but without intimate knowledge.
Old Mink traps, Lookout Mountain |
Mink: Colorado Division of Wildlife |
AICF Gala, Denver, Colorado |
Last winter, during a blizzard in Denver (much like what the rest of the country is experiencing now), I attended an elegant fundraising gala hosted by the American Indian College Fund. As I was getting dressed, and as the storm raged, I thought about wearing my mother’s mink stole. The fact that it had been shoved to the back of my closet for five years, along with the fur collars, and hadn’t been worn for at least twenty years prior to that, seemed like the final affront to the dignity of the animals that had given their lives.
As I reached into the back of my closet and stroked the soft fur, this question reared its head: If an animal has already died, and if that animal’s fur has already been made into a coat, does one not dishonor the animal by not wearing the coat? I’m not asking whether it’s moral to farm animals for their fur; or immoral to know so little about where the clothing on your back comes from. I’m asking about the morality of not letting something go to waste. If a deer is killed by a car, should the meat be taken to a raptor rehab facility?
Tracks in the Snow |
How do we earn our place in the world? |
Note from Page: CLICK HERE for information on how to donate used furs to help in the rehabilitation of injured and orphaned wildlife (“Coats for Cubs” program, The Humane Society of the United States).
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Comments
Pamela S. Beason, Author
who occasionally blogs about nature, chaos, and the writing life at http://psbeason.wordpress.com
New
Dilemma
I've had the same thoughts myself but not in relation to mink or other furs because I haven't had the situation arise, but in relation to simply eating exotic meats or invading space where animals are in the wild. We modern Americans have very little knowledge of what other "people" are around us at any given time. It seems that there are often others around and we are so ignorant and clumsy that we never know it. Sadly, many of us would like to know about and feel at home in wild places, but we have been cut off from that knowledge for a long time.
I suppose that if you had the knowledge and awareness of how to live in a natural environment and could approach a mink on its terms and not just your human ones, you could make a more informed decision about how to honor the mink if you came to the point of taking its life. Native people around the world universally say a prayer of thanks and blessing for the life of the animal they have killed, which, in my opinion, is the only real way to stay connected to the universe and the life forms that inhabit it.
To me, the Golden Rule extends to other creatures and, if followed, would surely decrease waste, ruin and disrespect toward other living things.
Thanks for a thought-provoking post.
Cheers,
Christine
Stay warm. Enjoy the fur.
Alice Liles
The Bright Lights of Muleshoe
I, too, have had thoughts like these about my own fur coats. One fischer, and the other a mink, now hang in my storage. Years ago while living off Lakeshore Drive in Chicago we survived by wearing our pelts when the wind chill factor was -90. (Yes,really.)
On occasion I still drag one out to wear to some winter shindig up in Aspen. Although when I put them on I feel the guilt our society puts on us for keeping warm. And of course, I feel the anxious cry of the animals - all we ever ate growing up in Wyoming was from the fall family hunt though. And I wouldn't be here today to comment or vote without those critters which helped my railroad Dad raise four kids on less than $10,000 a year. I feel caught in a trap myself at times. Hanging in time between higher consciousness or not?
I voted "No" to you wearing your Mom's fur stole. Not fashionable enough for you,and I agree would make a divine bed jacket.
Thanks for the brain stretch this A.M. Love always, Camille
If the stole had been left in my possession and wasn't contaminated with preservatives, I'd take it out to the desert and let the ravens, coyotes and bugs have at it.
Thanks for a strong piece. m
Surprisingly, my daughter who never wears fur agreed that because it was her grandmother's she would take the coat and she plans to wear it. The mink cape I resolved to make into a fur pillow as a gift for one of the grown children.
Thanks so much for bringing up your quandary - it is not an easy decision.
I enclose a poem I wrote in 1983.
I spot movement – a rich brown swath against the green lichen.
Soft black eyes. ,I name it a mink not by its silky coat,
distinctly different from dead hides I know in coats, but by its long tubular shape.
In the rocky darkness I separate out the triangular nose, the barely-visible tips of ears, then the unexpected glimpse of august white under the chin.
It treads with slow reserve,
certainly not the heightened quick beat I would expect
but a slower drumming: turning slowly into the shadows
of a crevice between two granite thrusts.
Once it is under, I bend to see it again..
The mink returns my looking serenely, curiously,
sniffing unceasingly upward,
adjusting its long self and soft tail to the narrow slant,
never retreating, bold and shy at once.
Not wanting to unduly detain or disturb it I gently retreat.
It descends leisurely to a deeper labyrinth in the rocks.
As it passes I relish its living fur –
rich sienna against the mauve mottled granite.
Carol Grever
I have my lovely furs in a garment bag where I occasionally pet them and remember and think how silly to have warm clothes you never wear and I do thank the animals who had their fur and attached skin taken from their bodies after they were killed...however they were killed , they probably did not die of old age a quiet peaceful death. It is hard to know how to honor life...and then we think of leather shoes etc. and all the other ways we use animals and other life.
It does make one pause, or should perhaps from time to time cause us to pause.
If we wear real fur, does that continue the practice of setting traps? Does the improvement of fake fur take away this issue? Is it better to hide the evidence in closets and boxes lined with cedar?
I wish I knew the answer..
love you, Nancy
Deep winter here, too. Like Colorado, it is wonderful territory.
I love my new home in a tiny country community next to the Ofoten fjord. I still keep up my English writing whenever I can, which is more seldom than I like.
We just met briefly way up in the Rocky Mountains years ago, but somehow I have the feeling, we'll meet again.
Meanwhile, I wish you the very best and will continue to enjoy your newsletters-
Stay warm, stay connected, and stay happy,
Greta
I’m glad you enjoyed the essay, though I find myself still pondering the questions it poses. Your tiny community next to the Ofoten fjord sounds lovely.
The Norwegians have always worn furs, yes? And wool? I wonder if the Norwegians have managed to maintain an intimacy with their land, and the animals that share the landscape with them. I would love to know more.
I ask though, is the relationship question one of the entangled and charged issue of using the fur of an animal for the warmth it provides or the status it imparts?
Or is it a question of the relationship you once had with your mother and the relationship you now have with your mother, given that our relationships with the living might be quite different that our relationships with the person of our past?
I wish I had better recall of the things I now want to remember and revisit about my parents. I can't seem to recreate those stored memories on command and only get to dwell in that realm when emotions stimulate my memory capabilities. Then I hang on with tenacity, unwilling to let those memories slip back into that hidden crevasse that envelopes what I would like to have better access to.
It is a rare moment, such as your reaching for the stole, that emotions bring forth a glimpse into a relationship and allows for a visit into the past.
Just a few thoughts. Thanks so much. All the best. rev
You're right, too, about how emotion triggers memories. Emotion, and senses - I cannot smell concord grapes without immediately being transported back to my grandmother's backyard patio in California, and the taste of the concord grapes that clung to the vines which climbed her trellis.
Buddhists eating meat, and wearing leather, and found the issue becoming even more complex. Perhaps the best thing any of us can do is the simplest: practice everyday awareness - be aware, each moment, of our relationship with every other living thing.
1 - Sensitivity to the place and people there. I made my mother's mink stole into a leather and mink jacket, but would NEVER wear it to an AICF event.
And 2- It you already have it, and the animals sacrifice, WHERE is wearing a faux piece better? We have the former, in all its elegance; and we support the latter and all its new fashion.
Mary Estill
Such a thoughtful essay, as usual! I would urge you to keep your mother's fur and wear it when you wish because it honors the memories you have of the wonderful times she and your dad had, memories you shared in such a lovely way with us. When you put on that fur, you are wrapping yourself in that warm family history as well.
I have a mink myself and it is delicious to swathe myself in it on these frigid nights. And yes, I feel somehow that if I refused to wear it, those minks would have died in vain. Which brings me to the deeper metaphysical questions you pose: "What is my relationship with the earth that sustains me...what covenant can I forge with all the things that live because of me, and all the things that die because of me?" I look to the relationship between man and the animals prescribed for us by our Creator in Genesis..."have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Gen. 1:28 Obviously this is not permission to destroy species or to despoil the earth; God created everything with great care and would not have given man this governing power to harm his creation. Rather, we have a duty to tend the creation as a farmer tends his fields, or a horsewoman her horse, to nurture it with love and gratitude but also to use it for our own benefit. Man is clearly placed above the animals in a hierarchy that will doubtless incense those who believe man is just another animal. But we can see this dominion, this hierarchy, played out all around us in the real world. We farm minks and cattle and sheep and turkeys, they don't farm us.
Is it morally wrong to use animals for our own purposes, or is it what God and or/nature intended? I think certain scenarios are clearly wrong, and they occur when we violate our role as stewards of the earth and its animals. Shooting thousands of buffalo from trains as happened on the Great Plains would be one appalling example, and another would be killing/wearing endangered fur (Wallis Simpson and her horrid jaguar coat come to mind).
We can and should honor animals but can't really covenant with them because covenant, like the Golden Rule, implies an agreement between
beings mutually aware of what they are agreeing to and animals simply don't have this capacity. But do they have some form of soul? Mine sure do!
I admit that I hunt for food. Venison is just about the only red meat I eat. It is healthy, low in fat, free of chemicals for the most part), and a plentiful well managed resource.
My Abenaki and Cherokee ancestry taught me that living within the means of the natural world is an absolute necessity. I don't expect urbanites or suburbanites to understand. Theirs is a different world.
I pray for the healing of the natural world daily. I try to behave within the means that it allow.
- It has a sentimental value for you because it had been your mother's...so enjoy it and honor her by thinking of her when you wear it.
- The minks out of which the stole was made were killed quite a while ago, and not wearing it will serve no moral nor practical purpose, whatsoever (those against the making of fur garments are concerned with the killing of live animals for no necessary purpose, i.e. we can make warm coats without killing animals).
- There is a thing (an adage?) called the law of nature...and mankind has been at the top (for the most part) for quite a while. Now, of course, that doesn't justify cruelty against the animals we lord it over, but just about every animal survives by killing other animals. I know little - well, nothing, really - about mink farms, but I can't imagine that the little critters are, generally, mistreated by their handlers prior to their killing for the sake of their fur (too bad they're not good to eat, too). As has been pointed out, if left to the laws of nature, a great many of the minks would die on their own, anyway.
- And....I'm sure it's warm!
When I searched the web, I found this bit of information about contemporary uses http://www.furcommission.com/FAQ.htm#Anchor-35326 : "Mink carcasses are rarely eaten by humans as the scent gland gives the meat a distinctive flavor... However, they are not wasted. Some farmers trade them for fish offal with fishermen who use them as crab bait. Crabs love mink meat, but seals hate it! Other farmers give the carcasses to people who raise birds of prey or run wildlife preserves, zoos or aquariums. Yet others use them to make organic compost. Or they may be bought and rendered down to provide raw materials for a wide range of products, from tires and paint to makeup and organic fertilizers."
This quote answers some of our questions but the main one, is of course, what is the quality of the animal's life, and what is the quality of the animal's death - is the animal treated respectively and humanely. Honoring all living things, for me, should remain at the heart of all decisions.
thank you for your thoughts!
Thanks again for helping us to think these thing through. Larry
Her explanation was a lady at one of the craft fairs was recycling old fur coats since animals gave their lives for them and that shouldn't be wasted. Most fur coats end up in land-fills and the point of that is???
Liz
We could talk at length about this... I cannot answer your questions on behalf of all Norwegians, but, in general, yes, Norwegians have worn fur and wool from their own sheep, and still partly do.
Many people here have traditionally made their living from hunting, farming and fishing, and, at least some of them (there are some nasty exceptions) prided themselves of making use of every part of the animal or fish.
Example: The way the Sami people relates to reindeer (Fur goes to clothing and bedding; bones go to tools and decor; meat is dried, salted or frozen for food etc.)
Also, in general, Norwegians are very connected to the land and to our rich amounts of most beautiful nature...
Greta
Norway
But our modern culture seems to focus on examples of excessive wealth used only for one's own status, rather than in focusing on all the small ways in which we show our generosity.
My mother's mink stole offers less warmth than a full mink coat. It would not offer me much comfort on this blustery day. Except perhaps to wear over my shoulders, reading in bed.
I also agree that in today's world people are much more separated from nature than we were a few generations ago. Many don't know where the meat they buy in the market comes from or have even seen cattle on the open range. With how industrialized we have become and the increasing growth of cities it is hard for everyone to understand or even realize their connections to the land that still exist. They may not be as intimate of a connection for people living in a large city like Minneapolis compared to a farmer in Montana, but they are still there. All we can really do sometimes is be thankful for what we have, even if we are ignorant of how it came to be in our possession. Having grown up in Montana and Wyoming I like to think I have a slightly better idea of how my food gets to my table or where the cotton from my clothes came from, but in reality our world is so diverse with trade that it would be almost impossible to trace back every single thing I own to see where it originated. Many things come from overseas or are made there by underpaid workers with materials brought in from somewhere else. Everything is so interconnected in today's world, but everything still relies on the land. That is one reason it made me so sad when we went to Mexico and saw how much trash was thrown out in the arroyos. To Matt and me it displayed a complete disprespect and disregard for the land and everything that lived there. But maybe we have a different respect for the land after having had the opportunity to enjoy it while hunting, backpacking, and many other outdoor activities. Outdoor recreation seems to bestow a sort of ownership of the land upon some of its users. An ownership that compells us to pick up trash after others and leave as little of a trace as possible on its beauty while backpacking. I wish more people had a greater sense of appreciation of the land.
I think you should wear your mother's mink stole. To me it would be a shame to let such a beautiful thing go to waste, and sitting in the back of the closet does not honor the mink who gave their lives as you had mentioned. Because you know the story behind it and have such good memories of seeing your mother wearing the stole it is like a piece of family history for you. Wearing it will also remind you of your mother and might make you feel a connection to her. You might not have been the one to trap the mink, but you have a deep appreciation for their sacrifice. In a way it is kind of similar to a native american who inherited a headdress of eagle feathers or a dress adorned with elk ivories, they appreciate and respect the animal's sacrifice even if they did not harvest it themselves. But if it makes you feel guilty you could always donate it to a charity like the one you mentioned. Anna
Hugs, Maggie
Makes me reflect on those that hunt just what they need, bless the bounty, and use all aspects versus massive killings or only using certain parts...kills that don't revere or set in place a sort of relationship.
I liked my mom's comment, "we have the former--in all its elegance (still I question); and we support the latter and all its new fashion (still I question a fur look to begin with).
Helen