Salt Lake Tribune: Bird flu death in Washington state renews concern as virus spreads unchecked at Utah mink farm
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/11/06/bird-flu-death-washington-state/
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@Affekt @ai6yr I came across a store recently that was selling them. I was intensely curious as my hobby is historical costuming, and had never seen a modern real fur coat in person. Construction, hand, weight etc.
I expected expensive but was shocked.
$40k a pop, for the high end furs like mink.
Just another way that billionaires will kill us all.
@LynnD @sewblue @Affekt @ai6yr Someone locally here bought a building that previously housed a dry cleaning business for decades. There were dozens of fur coats in the basement vault. The owners were all deceased. The ones where they couldn’t track down a living descendant were donated to local community theater groups.
@markc568 @LynnD @Affekt @ai6yr
Before media allowed us to recognize important people by face, fur (and expensive clothing in general) are how the wealthy ensured they would be treated with deference. The coat you wore did the talking when you arrived at a restaurant without reservations for example, not your face.
We retain that impulse with the car we drive, the one area of our life where anonymity prevails.
These coats were investments, and for a while would literally open doors for you. And that belongs in the past.
Anyone buying a newly made fur coat for fashion is doing it show off the cruelty.
@ai6yr one day, when a third of humanity is wiped out by a flu hopefully the survivors will look back and say "at least they had fur coats".
Factory farming in general is a deplorable practice but mink farming is especially likely to be a source for bird flu to make it to humans. It must be for export because in 45 years I don't ever remember seeing a mink anything outside a movie prop.