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In this issue
March 19, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details
JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel
March 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America?
JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes)
Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum
March 17, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me
Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth?
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review Dec 18, 2007 / 9 Teves 5768

In defense of fur coats

By Betsy Hart


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | If People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) really cared about animals, instead of vivisecting the celebrity Olsen twins as it did this week for wearing fur, it would actually be promoting the American fur trade. Seriously.


Full disclosure: I admit to having and wearing a fur coat. In some quarters such a confession may be akin to owning up to enjoying a smoke in a nursery school, but there it is. OK, actually what I have is more of a jacket, and it's some 15 plus-years-old now. But on these bitter cold Chicago days, I couldn't be happier for the incredible warmth it provides. Nothing else comes close.


I sometimes think animal-rights activists have a vision of wild animals being happily surrounded at the end of life by their little Bambis as they slip off peacefully to animal heaven. The reality is that animals in the wild will for the most part suffer tortuous deaths by a) being brutally killed and eaten, or being eaten very much alive, by other animals or b) dying a horrific, slow death — alone — of sickness, injury or old age.


I recently watched a YouTube.com video featuring life in the wild. One little water buffalo, still very much alive, is being viciously chewed on at both ends — lions on one, crocodiles on the other.


It really is a jungle out there.


Now consider that the American fur industry is the most scrutinized in the world, as it should be. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) approves of the humane raising of animals for their fur. Member vets inspect fur farms through industry-certification organizations like the Fur Commission USA to ensure compliance with ethical standards of animal care. In its 2007 guidelines on euthanasia, which actually means "good death," the AVMA noted that most farm-raised fur animals, which is where most U.S. pelts come from, "are euthanized individually and at the location where they are raised." Typically, they are painlessly gassed.


But it turns out that whatever a fur farmer's personal views, the market rules. And the better an animal is treated in terms of its food, veterinary care, even its cage conditions, will be reflected in its fur quality and its price. It's no accident that America's fur industry produces the most expensive furs in the world.


It should also come as no surprise that because of the fur trade, fur-bearing animals in the United States are more numerous than at any time in our history.


If PETA had its way and the fur trade were abolished in the United States, not only would some animals such as mink likely become an endangered species here, people would look even more to foreign countries and their cheaper furs, including the Chinese and their growing and unregulated fur industry, to fill the void.


Let's face it — the mink and fox are better off in America.


By the way, look for the nascent fallout between environmentalists and animal-rights activists to grow. The average synthetic winter jacket, which comes from petroleum products, will last only a couple of years and takes three gallons of oil to produce. It also never fully biodegrades. In contrast, the same fully natural and biodegradable fur can be worn for generations.


The issue isn't, or shouldn't be, whether to allow animals (outside of "companimals") to be used by humans no matter how well they are treated, which is PETA's position.


The question for most people, and rightly so, is how to use animals in an ethical and humane way. This goes back to biblical times, when the writers of Proverbs noted that "a righteous man cares for the needs of his animal" but wicked men are cruel to theirs.


Yes, of course, there are people, even in the animal-husbandry fields, who treat animals cruelly. That is a terrible thing. But the way to halt abuse and improve conditions for animals isn't to argue the nonsensical and utterly impractical position of PETA, "no use of animals." It's to continue to press for their right use by the only beings who can, by definition, use them "humanely." Humans.

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