Force fur good: Turning regret into vital warmth in Afghanistan

Afghanistan can get bitterly cold – with potentially devastating consequences. Just how devastating is clear from a tragic story recounted by Auf Al-Rawi, who manages the aid group Life for Relief and Development's office in the country.

"Our previous Afghanistan office manager lost his newborn due [to] the extreme cold weather and the lack of firewood that people use to heat their houses," he says.

Temperatures in mountainous parts of the country can drop in winter to an inhospitable -25 degrees Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit) – or even lower. This winter was particularly brutal and by late February hypothermia had killed over 200 people, authorities said.

It comes amid a period of desperation for Afghanistan. The United Nations has called the country of over 39 million people "one of the world's worst humanitarian crises".

Fur amnesty

In January, Life, which was founded three decades ago by Arab American professionals, gave out fur coats in a village in eastern Afghanistan's Laghman province. These were provided by the British wing of animal rights organisation Peta, which collects fur donations as part of an amnesty scheme. Life has previously distributed furs from the group in Afghanistan.

"The need is huge and Peta coats are providing the needy with protection during the harshest times," Auf says. He wishes the animal organisation could double or triple the supply.

Nicole Hoisington, international programmes coordinator at Life, is full of praise. "These fur coats from Peta are incredibly high quality. They're incredibly warm. They're not like a winter coat that I would, like, go and buy at the store. They're going to… last an entire lifetime," she says.

"A lot of them have already lasted entire lifetimes. They're going to be passed down. They're going to be used to the absolute extent of usefulness. Nobody's going to get rid of it or discard it because maybe it got like a small tear in it."

Where and why?

"Obviously, we can't bring back the animals who've been slaughtered for their fur, but we can repurpose it and give it to people who are struggling to survive, and really those are the only people with an excuse to wear fur."

Peta UK senior campaigns manager Kate Werner says furs donated to her organisation's amnesty scheme have been sent to wildlife rehabilitation programmes for use as bedding for orphaned animals. They've also been used to help homeless people in the UK, as well as women and children in sub-Saharan Africa and people struggling to keep warm in winter in Pakistan, she adds.

"We partner with organisations like Life to send them anywhere where people really need them," says Kate, who calls fur "incredibly cruel".

"Obviously, we can't bring back the animals who've been slaughtered for their fur, but we can repurpose it and give it to people who are struggling to survive, and really those are the only people with an excuse to wear fur."

Peta UK receives a variety of fur products, including coats, jackets and scarves. Donations come in thick and fast and every couple of months the group is ready to send off another shipment after checking the items are in good enough condition to be passed on.

Life has worked with both Peta UK and US and Nicole says she would "love to see" her group's relationship with the animal rights organisation "grow and flourish". She adds: "I would love to see several shipments a year to a variety of places, wherever they're needed most. So hopefully we can do that and I'm pretty optimistic about that."

This could prove significant in the future as climate change sees extreme weather become increasingly common.

'Nobody will be caught dead in' fur

Britons have long taken issue with animal fur and almost three-quarters would support the government introducing legislation on banning its import and sale, according to a survey carried out last year.

"Because we've been campaigning for decades on fur… nobody anymore really wears it. Nobody will be caught dead in it these days," says Kate, the Peta UK campaigns manager. "Because of that, people are trying to get rid of their fur, and so we came up with this idea of an amnesty."

"Whenever we receive the furs, we deface them… in a minor way. These animals' fur will never be… worn again for fashion. We're giving it to people who need it."

Claire Filler had a fur coat stuffed at the back of her wardrobe following her mother's death. Her mum hadn't known what to do with the fur, which belonged to Claire's grandmother.

Claire hadn't wanted to sell it as she "didn't want it to be enjoyed". She adds: "I didn't want to take it to the recycling centre as that seemed disrespectful to the animal that gave their life for the coat. I was so conflicted. Then I thought of you and found that you take old furs. I can finally rest easy knowing this thing is out of circulation but being put to good use."

Off the market

As an animal rights organisation, Peta must take into account ethical considerations beyond the benefits donations can bring to humans. The group makes sure the furs it collects can't be sold on.

"Whenever we receive the furs, we deface them… in a minor way," says Kate, adding the damage wouldn't be noticeable to those receiving the donations.

"So we might spray-paint them with paint in… just a few splotches here and there, or like cut them with a razor just slightly so that they can't then go back into circulation. These animals' fur will never be… worn again for fashion. We're giving it to people who need it."

For more information on donating furs to Peta UK, click here. For details on giving furs to the organisation's US wing, click here.

Featured image credit: Life for Relief and Development

Nick McAlpin is a journalist who has worked at The New Arab since March 2021. He holds a master's degree in social anthropology and a BA in French and Arabic. He lived in Jordan for a year during his undergraduate studies. Nick started his journalism career as a freelancer in 2019.