This came across my desk[top] a short while ago. While I didn't need to answer it, her view on life (so narrow and black & white) was too sad to let this just go by without my $.02 (I usually keep quiet on issues that are none of my business..but hey- she was asking for input..).

WWYD?

Tell her to stop being an idiot, it is ALREADY dead. By not putting it to good use it will only cause OTHER animals to be killed for their furs...
Either sell it or give it to someone, but giving it to the poor in third world countries is likely to cause the deaths of more than this unfortunate leopard.... And since when do dogs and cats need blankets??? What if leopard dog blankets become a fad???

Maybe find an old balding leopard, and donate it?


9

Why does her objection to fur make her narrow-minded or her views "black and white"? I think the options that she's discussing are a bit ridiculous and make her sound like a bit of a kook, but I don't see anything wrong with her opinion that a piece of clothing fashioned from an endangered species should go to the trash rather than giving a tacit approval of illegal fur trade by wearing it or giving it to someone else. I don't even know that this item is legal to possess, given the status of the species in question. We're not talking about a mink or beaver coat here - it's not a farmed species. It is ENDANGERED, a throw-back to a time when people had actual ivory keys on their pianos, and tiger parts were considered aphrodisiacs. There is a real, ongoing struggle to curb illegal fur trade and someone who opposes that trade and chooses not to be hypocritical by wearing or selling a piece of contraband is not "narrow-minded" or "black and white". I think she comes off as a bit stupid (as many PETA fans are), but I fail to see why the sentiment is "sad".

In short, I asked her to think even more globally and sell the coat to an organization (that 1- wouldn't wear it, thereby minimizing the 'enviable factor' she was so worried about and 2- give her full retail value [and heck if it's PETA they can surely spare the change]). Then in turn, with those thousands of dollars buy hundreds of coats for freezing children in Israel (and Afghanistan too if she wished) etc. Aside from the huge baal tashches aspect, told her to realize how much potential this one item had to influence hundreds..

PETA certainly *could* spare the change, but it's not their MO. I'm having a hard time imagining who would purchase such a coat (if, again, it is indeed legal to sell. My guess is that it is not.) and not wear it. It's a noble thought, but one that rarely comes to fruition...

She should track down the surviving kin of the leopard and return the coat to them.

Why can't they buy it and display it as an object of the great chain of kindness they helped spur? (it's so crazy they may even go for it! )

I would do nothing. I would respect her beliefs, however ridiculous they may sound to me.

Ebay.