Winter time – hat time! But please without real fur pompoms!
When it gets autumnal outside, we get more and more inquiries here in the mimikama office about these or similar posts on Facebook:

PLEASE SHARE IT!!!
Soon it will be winter and these cute little creatures will be kept in cages until they are killed in mostly inhumane ways.
And for what? For shitty pompoms on hatsPLEASE DO NOT BUY REAL FUR!!!!!
Here are a few tips
Unfortunately, laypeople often cannot tell real fur apart from fake fur because they look the same at first glance. But there are the following ways to distinguish real from fake.
Before buying, you place the fur on its side on a parting. If there is a net on which the fur is located, it is fake fur. If there is leather underneath, it is guaranteed to be real fur. The animals' fur is completely removed, which is why you will always find real fur on leather. Faux fur is attached to a net.
Real fur often has a fluffy undercoat that is so fine and fluffy because it is real hair.
you move against the direction of growth: like humans, animal fur has a cuticle layer. If you move against the direction of growth, you will feel very slight “resistance”. When brushed against synthetic fur hair, the texture is completely smooth.
(please don't do it in the store since real hair and therefore real fur is made of keratin, real fur smells very strongly of burnt hair, while fake fur smells like plastic. The difference is clear in terms of smell.
Look at tips: if fur hair is cut straight, it is almost certainly faux fur. Fur hairs run to a point; it may be real fur.
Blowing: If you blow over the fur, the top hair of real fur lies to the side. You can also often see the undercoat, as mentioned above. This is not the case with faux fur as it is more rigid.
And let's be honest, faux fur can look cool too, it's so well made and no animal has to sacrifice their life for it.
Users ask themselves: “Apparently puppies are killed for bobble hats and the fur is used.” or “I'm not sure if it's actually a fake, but the fact that animals are killed explicitly for bobble hats seems suspicious to me. What do you all mean?"
The fact check
It is true that fur animals are killed for clothing or accessories. And as colleague Petra put it, every furry animal begins its life as a puppy. The fact that a puppy (presumably a fox) is used as a symbolic image for countless other fur-bearing animals also attracts more attention than an older animal.
And creating awareness that this practice exists has its justification.
According to Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No. 1523/2007, it is fundamentally prohibited to place cat and dog fur and products containing such fur on the market in the EU and to import it into or out of the EU. Deviating from this principle, in exceptional cases (e.g. teaching purposes or animal taxidermy) the Commission can place the product on the market or allow import or export from the EU in accordance with Article 4 of the Regulation. (Source: Customs [also applies to sealskin!])
A look back to 2014 shows that many companies speak out against real fur, but even with strict controls it can happen that fur from cats and dogs can be found as, for example, pompoms on hats in Germany.
There is also enough explicit footage on the internet that shows the miserable conditions under which fur-bearing animals live out their short existence.
the tips given in the status posts are all useful and a good way to help yourself avoid accidentally coming across real fur items.
There is also a great video about this:
Result:
Fur animals are killed for clothing and accessories. In Germany there is a ban on the import of cat, dog and seal fur.
We speak out clearly against any kind of animal cruelty and cannot rule out the possibility that fox puppies end up as pompoms on their hats.
But there are a few tricks to find out whether it is real or fake fur.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

