My cats love furry cat toys. There’s something about real fur that brings out the primal kitty in them. With real fur toys they play longer and more enthusiastically and they just seem to enjoy their toys more.

By far one of their favourites are Hartz Mini Mice and Kitty Frenzy – both real fur mice with a rubbery centre. They have a bit of weight to them and they bounce nicely and make for hours of fun.

However, despite my cats’ great love for real fur toys, I don’t buy them any more.

Ethical problems with fur

Before you bristle in indignation (or pat me on the back) please understand – I don’t have a broad ethical objection to fur in general. I eat meat, I feed my cats meat, I wear leather and I don’t have a problem with hunting or farming animals. As long as it is done humanely.

And there is where I have issues with real fur cat toys.

Most fur trim on novelties and small items, such as on cat toys, is rabbit fur imported from China. If you’re not familiar with China’s horrific track record when it comes to animal welfare abuses, there’s plenty of reading on Google. To briefly sum up some of the issues with imported fur:

• Animals are often kept packed together in tiny, filthy cages, with not even enough space to turn around.
• Animals are frequently skinned alive and then tossed aside to suffer horribly in their last moments.
• Fur is often mislabelled. What is sold as rabbit fur may actually be dog, cat, raccoon dog or any number of other fur bearing animals. In fact, once you remove the head, paws, tail and internal organs, cat and rabbit carcasses are virtually indistinguishable.
• Many animals are raised for their fur, but that imported fur could be someone’s pet that was snatched off the street.

And while it’s easy to focus on China, North American and European fur trapping and raising practises are also barbaric. Again, we have animals that have a wide natural range confined to tiny cages, normally solitary animals confined in close proximity to each other, poor care, inhumane killing methods, inhumane trapping practises and all sorts of other acts of cruelty. There’s also the matter of waste – raising an animal for nothing but its skin.

What about humanely farmed fur?

I spoke with a Hartz representative a while back, as I was concerned about the source of the fur that was used in my kitties’ favoured toys. They confirmed that the fur came from China, that it was rabbit fur and that it was obtained humanely.

I’m a naturally sceptical person, but I’m inclined to give Hartz the benefit of the doubt. If they say that their fur is humanely obtained rabbit fur, then I believe that they believe that is the truth.

But I’m still not going to buy anything made with imported fur, because in the end, I just don’t know enough about the source. The fact remains that suppliers have deceived their buyers in the past and it could happen again. People who thought they were buying rabbit fur, fur that was labelled as rabbit fur, have received fur from companion animals. I’m not willing to entertain that risk. I don’t know about you, but even the slight chance that my cats’ toys might contain the fur of another cat that was skinned alive is too much of a chance for me.

Left: cat fur; centre: unknown animal fur; right: rabbit fur. Would you be able to tell the difference?

Have your cake fur and… eat it too?

However, just because I’m not going to buy mass produced fur toys from corporate giants (or unknown dollar store brands), doesn’t mean my cats have to give up real fur toys for good. There are still sources of fur that I can feel comfortable with:

• Second-hand fur coats. Readily available at the Salvation Army and other second hand shops. While there are no guarantees about the original source of the fur, you won’t be contributing to the proliferation of the fur industry. Coats in good condition have gone up in price lately (around here anyway) but you can get a ridiculous number of cat toys out of a full length fur coat. If you can find a coat that is slightly ratty and cheaper, bonus! The cats won’t care if the fur is slightly worn. They’re just going to chew the hell out of it anyway.

  Note: Clean the fur with a cat-friendly cleaner before you turn it into toys. It may have been sprayed with Febreeze, stored in mothballs or treated with some other chemical cleaner that would be bad for kitty.

• Rabbit farmers. While rabbits certainly aren’t the most popular meat animals, there’s a good chance that there’s a small rabbit farming operation near where you live. Some meat rabbit operations may tan the hides, while others just throw them away. Whether you buy pre-tanned hides, or get the untanned hides and do it yourself, buying locally means you can check out the farm before hand and find out how the rabbits were raised and killed. You might even be fortunate enough to find that they make cat toys and other items from their pelts.
• Hunters. If you know any responsible hunters, ask them to save unwanted pelts for you. Most hunters will just dispose of the pelts after the finish dressing their kill, so chances are they will be up for grabs.
• Your cat (her shed fur that is). If you prefer an option that requires no animals be harmed, you can collect your cat’s fur when you have a brushing session and felt it.

* Tanning is a learned skill and quite a bit of work, so unless you have an interest in it or are really determined to prepare your own pelts, you’ll probably want to opt for sources of tanned pelts. Rabbit fur is ideal for cat toys, because it is soft and the thin skins are easy to sew. These qualities also make it one of the more challenging pelts to tan.

We need not sacrifice our ethics or turn a blind eye to cruelty in order to give our cats the things they enjoy.

What I’m doing

I still have a few fur toys kicking around the house, purchased before I clued into the major issues with imported fur. I’ll keep these around till they’re worn out, and then start making my own fur toys. I’ve made one attempt at tanning (epic fail) using the pelts of a couple of meat rabbits I bought at a local farm, and I have another fresh pelt from a wild rabbit sitting in the freezer. I’ll tackle it one of these days.

What are you thoughts on real fur toys? Do you buy them, avoid them or just not think about it? Do your cats love real fur, and would you go to the effort of making toys for them from safe sourced fur? Share your thoughts.

Toy photo from hartz.com
Fur photos by Michal Zacharzewski, Asif Akbar & Sirkullay.
Fur coat photo by RebeccaJBuckley.