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The following reader's letter appeared in the Dayton Daily News (Ohio) on January 9, 1999.
Santa in Synthetics Ecologically Incorrect
By Teresa Platt, Executive Director, FCUSA
HO, HO, HO! SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN! But from now on, says the Humane Society of the United States, Santa should abandon his suit of fur-trimmed wool and wrap up in synthetics ("It's time for Santa to go furless," Dec. 23). We beg to differ.
Specifically, society spokeswoman Patricia Forkan endorsed a "breakthrough product" called "evolutionary fur." Is this "fabric" preferable to natural fur, which Forkan called "unnecessary, obsolete and harmful"?
Contrary to Forkan's assertion that synthetic fur is less "harmful" than the real thing, the product range of "evolutionary fur" tells a different story. It includes "seal," "jaguar" and "tiger," all 100 percent acrylic, and "fox" and "bear," made from a mixture of acrylic and modacrylic.
Acrylic fiber is a synthetic fiber polymerized from acrylonitrile, a combination of acrylic resin and nitrile. Nitrile is used to make acrylic rubber for common gaskets, seals and nitrile/PVC rubber combinations for insulation.
In plain language, this "breakthrough" product called evolutionary fur is plastic - nonrenewable, polluting, nonbiodegradable plastic. Take a look in any landfill, and you'll get the picture.
The Humane Society of the United States envisions a synthetics-clad Santa abandoning reindeer power in favor of petro-chemical solutions such as diesel for fueling his sleigh, making an "evolutionary" jump to an animal-free, albeit more polluted, world.
Others would prefer to see Santa set an example by sticking to organic, renewable and recyclable products such as fur and wool for his clothing. We already can tell from his girth that Santa enjoys his Christmas milk and cookies while relying on a diet composed of foods from sustainable harvests of fish and grazers and domesticated animals that are supported on the bulk of the Earth's land and water.
Plastic Santas? Ho, ho, ho, indeed!
See also:
Ho, ho, ho! Plastic Santas? / Just What Is "Evolutionary Fur"? FCUSA press release, Nov. 28, 1998.
© 1998-2008 Fur Commission USA