The Religious Case Against Wearing Fur & Leather!

What is the price of a fine leather jacket? Or a fancy mink stole? While most people would think of these items in monetary terms, I tend to see beyond the price tag, looking towards the cost these items have on living creatures: the fur and skin of animals used merely for the purposes of vanity.

According to the International Society for Animal Rights, to make one fur garment requires four hundred squirrels; two hundred and forty ermine; two hundred chinchillas; one hundred and twenty muskrats; eighty sables; sixty-five mink; fifty martens; thirty raccoons; twenty-two bobcats; twelve lynx; or five wolves. Contrary to the image that many people have, most fur animals are not trapped in the wild by steel-jaw leg-hold traps. Instead, about 85 percent of all retail furs comes from a factory farm system reminiscent of the meat industry in its cruelty.

The yearly carnage from the fur industry is staggering. Approximately 1 billion rabbits and 50 million other farm-raised animals are slaughtered annually; even dogs and cats fall victim to the fur industry, mostly in China and other Asian markets.. The methods used in executing the animals to preserve their fur include electrocution, gassing by car exhaust, or simply stunning the animal and skinning it before it has a chance to react.

According to the Fur Information Council of America (FICA), the largest fur trade association, about 70 percent of the $1.39 billion U.S. retail fur sales in 2013 were for mink, small semi-aquatic carnivorous mammals. In 2009, approximately 300 American fur farms (Wisconsin has seventy-one farms alone, Utah has sixty-seven) slaughtered three million mink. The mink are held in cages only slightly larger than their bodies for the duration of their lives. Due to these harsh conditions, about 3 in 10 of mink herds raised for the fur industry in Utah carry the incurable Aleutian disease, and about 1 in 5 die of this disease before slaughter.  Further, selective breeding, mostly used to create unnatural and exotic fur colors, has led to irreparable genetic defects that put the animals under even greater stress.

According to FICA, fur sales increased about 10 percent from 2012-2013, about one-fifth of American women own a fur coat, and more than half of all purchasers are younger than 44, with the greatest market being New York City. The industry appears to be on the upswing, as the number of designers using fur in their collections has risen substantially, from about forty-two a generation ago, to about five hundred in 2014.

Although the tolerance for fur is on an upswing, exposure of the cruelty in fur production has resulted in progress, albeit small. Photographs of the slaughter of baby seal pups in Canada, for example, led to a ban on imported seal fur in the United States in 1972 and in the European Union in 2009, and today only Canada and China (which imports baby seal skins from Namibia) allow seal skin imports. This may help explain why the overall number of Canadian baby seals slaughtered has fallen in the last several. Additionally, prestigious designers and celebrities continue to publicize the anti-fur message, and in 2014, Mahiki, one of the most exclusive nightclubs in London, adopted a dress code to ban fur-wearing patrons.

In Jewish thought, knowledge compels action. Rabbi Chaim Dovid Halevy, the great twentieth century Israeli authority and winner of the esteemed Israeli Prize, ruled in 1992 that Jews should avoid wearing fur because of the prohibition of tzar baalei chaim – causing pain to animals. He goes on to explain that there are some farms that have different procedures yet “even killing without tza’ar baalei chaim is forbidden if there is no compelling human need (tzorekh chiyuni).” He ultimately ruled that one may not wear fur, not even for religious reasons.

Further, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim ruled that “because of the wide public discussion of the need to stop needless pain to animals, wearing a shtreimel (religious fur hat) today constitutes a Chilul Hashem – desecration of God’s name.”

Indeed, one of the five traditional prohibitions on Yom Kippur is to not wear leather shoes (Yoma 73b). The Shelah Hakadosh (Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz), an early seventeenth century mystic, suggested in his commentary on the blessing sh’asa li kol tzarki that the reason we do not wear leather on Yom Kippur is rooted in our commitment to compassion. He based this reasoning on Psalm 145:9: V’rachamav al kol maasav  – the notion that God is merciful to all creatures. On Yom Kippur, we recognize that we are all sinners and that we cannot stand before the Creator in good conscience, asking for mercy, when we are in a non-merciful state. Going further, the Shelah suggested that it is not mere humans who have dominion over the animal kingdom, but Godly human beings. Thus, on Yom Kippur, sinners do not have the right to benefit from animals in any capacity.

There is a custom to give another a blessing who is wearing a new garment for the first time but Rabbi Moshe Isserles (the Rema) ruled that this does not apply when the new garment or shoes are made from fur or leather since their creation necessitated the death of animals and we are to emulate God whose “mercy extends over all His works,” (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 223:6).

Nachmanides taught that those who slaughter large animals are likely to have cruel tendencies (commentary on Deuteronomy 22:6). One who enables that slaughter with a purchase should view oneself as a slaughterer of the animal. When we wear clothing supplied by an industry callous to the living of sentient beings, we should be wary of their ethical standing. It is our duty as consumers, but more so as people sensitive to the plight of the vulnerable, that we shun these cruel, sartorial choices. It is not hard to buy a leather-free belt to spare animals from unnecessary suffering. Thankfully, today, we have quality and affordable alternatives to wearing fur and leather.

The Sages taught that Jews are to be rachmanim b’nei rachmanim, compassionate children of compassionate ancestors (Beitza 32b). This mandate should permeate all of our actions, especially when we attend to our most basic needs.

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Executive Director of the Valley Beit Midrash, the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Founder and CEO of The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute and the author of seven books on Jewish ethics.  Newsweek named Rav Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America.”