Fur Commission USA’s Furry Friends Program

Recycle Your Surplus Furs as Fabulous “Furry Friends”!

Furry Friends is a project of Fur Commission USA, representing more than 400 families raising furbearers on 300 farms in two dozen states.

Eleven Christmases have passed since we donated the first Furry Friend to a fundraiser at the Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Now the program is so popular, we can’t keep up with demand, no matter what the season!

We’ve said goodbye to 340 of these adorable teddy bears and bunnies made from donated mink and other furs. Furry Friends have gone to worthy causes in the US and Canada, and our friends the Countryside Alliance in the UK.

The Furry Friends program takes surplus fur – damaged pelts, dressed or not, leftovers from recycled garments, it doesn’t matter – and transforms them into gorgeous cuddlies. These are stuffed with corn fiber, meaning they are made 100% from natural, biodegradable, renewable materials.

These are then donated to our favorite charities and groups protecting the quality of rural life. Funds and smiles are generated, and new friends won for the fur-farming community. 

Educational tags attached to each teddy explain the merits of fur, how fur farmers recycle the waste from human food production, and the role of fur farming in reducing pressure on wild populations of furbearers (see right).

Please make an extra special effort to donate a pelt or two, or any old garments no one wears anymore. These small donations add up, and when you’re ready for a fundraiser, don’t go empty-handed – take a Furry Friend!

DONATIONS: Please send all donations, whether fur pelts or garments, directly to:Marcella Furs & Leather, 2611 Wolflin Village, Amarillo, TX 79109; Tel: (806) 331-2002. Include a note indicating that the donation is for Furry Friends, plus your full contact information. Also tell us if you’d like a particular charity to benefit from your donation, and if you require a receipt for tax purposes.

REQUESTS: If you would like to receive one or more Furry Friends for use in a charity fundraiser, please contact Fur Commission USA. Please note, we can only ship Furry Friends to street addresses, not to PO boxes.

VALUE: As a guideline when fundraising time comes around, Furry Friends have a retail value of about $300.

Click here to download Furry Friends promotional flyer(PDF).

Your Furry Friend is made of real fur, Nature’s most beautiful, effective insulator, stuffed with environment-friendly corn straw. Real fur is not only gorgeous to look at and to hold, but is also …

Long-lasting. Fur is one of the most durable natural fibers known. With loving care, a fur garment or teddy can stay in your family for generations!

Environment-friendly. Farmers feed their animals the leftovers from human food production, keeping it out of landfills and transforming it into a beautiful fiber. Farming also helps stabilize prices, protecting wildlife from market forces. Wildlife managers and trappers, meanwhile, ensure populations do not exceed the carrying capacity of their habitat. In this way, animals stay healthy, and the risk is minimized of disease being transferred to humans and livestock.

Grateful recipients who have auctioned off Furry Friends include:

Alice in Dairyland Festival of Light, Alliance for America, American Agri-Women,California Biomedical Research Association, California Farm Bureau – Young Farmer & Rancher Program, Children’s Hospital San Diego, Committee for Responsible Wildlife Management (MA), Community Recreation Association (Dalton, MA), Countryside Alliance (UK), Community Recreation Association (Dalton, MA), Curtis Elementary School (Los Angeles), Dog Federation of Wisconsin, Empress Chinchilla, Epilepsy Foundation, Executive Women’s Golf Tournament, Fallbrook (CA) Republican Women’s scholarship fund, Farm Bureau of San Diego County, FCUSA Annual Meeting, Fishermen’s Barons Ball (SC),Fond du Lac Association of Commerce, Furbearers Unlimited, Fur Breeders Unlimited, Fur Institute of Canada, Hawgs for Dogs (Minnesota chapter of Guidedogs for America), International Mink Show, Kansas Fur Harvesters Association, Maine Agri-Women, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Museum of the Fur Trade, National Animal Interest Alliance, the National FFA Organization (formerly Future Farmers of America), National Trappers Association, National Wild Turkey Federation, Olympian Megan Imrie (Canada), Oregon Women for Agriculture, Paul Newman’s Camps for Children with Cancer, Pennsylvania Trappers Association, Property Rights Foundation of America, Provider Pals, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Service League of Manitowoc County (WI), Shoreland Lutheran High School (Wisconsin), Vanguard Albany Symphony, Western Pennsylvania Fur Farm Cooperative, Wisconsin Agribusiness Council, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, Women in Timber.