The debate over whether real animal fur should be used in fashion has been with us for much of the 20th Century, and it’s clear that there are passionate arguments on both sides. Fur wearers have even been subject to abuse in public, being coated in red paint and the like. Whilst we can all see that there’s evidently some moral argument that it’s wrong to breed and slaughter animals purely for their skin, and many of us would support a ban, surely there can be no issue with fake fur?

Well, no. Whilst it obviously doesn’t involve the breeding or death of an animal, fake fur does still need to be produced and there are costs involved to doing so. Businesses are always on the look-out for ways to cut costs and not all do this ethically. As people have become more conscious about fur, demand for it has fallen meaning prices fall. In addition, with much production now overseas, quality control has got much more complex.

Ultimately what this means is that real fur is now cheaper to produce than fake fur. It’s perhaps no surprise then that real fur is being passed off as fake fur, leading to a cross-party group of UK MPs calling for a total ban.