The Question of Fur/Bones and Ethics

One thing I see talked about a lot when it comes to sects like vulture culture, or just general bone/pelt/fur/taxidermy enthusiasts is ethics. People with these "unusual" interests are often put on the spot about ethics either by people who dislike their interests, or even people within the same interest group. Now this may be the late-night brain talking, but I wanted to discuss this a little.

First: what are ethics? 10 seconds on Google tells me that the definition of the word "ethics" is:

1. moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior.

   "Judeo-Christian ethics"

   synonyms:moral code, morals, morality, values, rights and wrongs, principles, ideals, standards (of behavior), value system, virtues, dictates of conscience

   "your so-called newspaper is clearly not burdened by a sense of ethics"

   • the moral correctness of specified conduct.

     "the ethics of euthanasia"
2. 2.

   the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles.

Alright, that's all good an well. But now what does that mean for us, exactly? The problem with ethics are that they vary from culture to culture, from region to region, and even from person to person. There are very few things people will agree on.

But ethics are also very personal to people. People will usually use their ethical beliefs and values to shape their behaviors, and use it to help make sense of how they interpret the world. It can give people grounds on which they operate on, and reasons for why they may accept or reject certain beliefs, actions, groups, or people.

Ethics are both quite strong, but also very fragile. They mean a lot to people, but at the same time our ethical views all differ, and we can change our views as we grow.

They also are talked about a lot in the dead-stuff community, and under much scrutiny.

It's a bit amusing to step back for a minute and look at our interests compared to other interests. Most interest groups usually don't hold the question of ethics for central discussion, especially if there's no outside pressure. In the meantime I know I've personally watched people argue over ethics within the fur/bone/taxidermy community, even though we all come from the standpoint of "I collect dead things" (and mind you, I'm pretty disconnected from others in general...waaay out of the loop!).

For some people, showing any interest in animal parts is practically a cardinal sin. For others, interest is fine, but don't you dare get involved with it. Still others may be okay if you pick up something like roadkill, or are comfortable keeping your pet's ashes, but that's it! Some people will tout that they support "ethical" sources only, and there's a divide on the discussion of "was this animal killed humanely?" or "did it live a good life?". And then of course some people just don't care, so long as it's legal. Then of course there's the more frowned upon crowd who will even go so far as to support illegal practices to get what they want.

I know personally my ethics have changed vastly over the years, going form "Hands off, no no, that's terrible!" to "Well, I found this out in the woods..." to "Oooh! Shiny! Gimme gimme gimme!" to "Well, I only want to support sources that AREN'T fur farms." to "Okay, second-hand is what I'm about." and now I'm somewhere in another transition between second-hand buys and supporting sources that treat the animals kindly and don't waste.

In the end really there's no right or wrong answer. We can pretend there are, and go off of things more widely held (for example: it's absolutely unethical to support poachers). But in the end it's all a matter of opinion!

I'm just curious about where other people hold their ethics. What do you currently believe and support? What things do you find unacceptable? How has your view of ethics pertaining to this interest evolved over time? Do you think that ethics are important to this interest? Why (or why not)?

I'd love to hear other opinions on the matter