Ambika Conroy and Cruelty-Free Fur

Anyone who hears the oxymoron 'cruelty-free fur' is likely to roll their eyes and tell you to stop being gullible. I don't know anyone who'd be willing to wear animal fur, just because it's always associated with cruelty. Ambika Conroy (designer and creator of Ambika Friendly Furs), in a farm in the Catskill Mountains, raises angora rabbits and hand-crochets the fibre into jackets, earmuffs, leg-warmers, gloves and even bikinis. She times the bunnies' haircuts to their natural molting cycle - every three months.

As an animal lover, she's driven by her abhorrence for the fur industry. 'I just can’t understand why we have to torture and kill all these sweet animals, when we could make an equally warm and luxurious product humanely.'

When I was trying to get my facts straight before writing this, I came across this video, and had to stop myself watching. In short, it's awful. It's absolutely horrible. On top of this, I found that 90% of angora fur comes from China, where there are no penalties for the abuse of animals on farms and no standards to regulate the treatment of animals. When you are buying a hat or jumper, or something else that contains angora, the angora fur most likely originated in China. 

The truth is, all animals are mistreated in the conventional fast fashion industry. For example, it is common for sheep to be violently shorn and hurt during shearing. The obvious solution is to go vegan with your clothing choices, but that's never going to be easy, especially as you don't always know what's going into what you wear. That's why I think what Ambika's doing is so important. She is an animal-loving designer who has committed to making truly cruelty-free products from harvested fur.

photos from tumblr