At New York Times (where else?), "The Nutria, a Rodent Promoted as 'Guilt-Free Fur'."
Okay, sure, this is not a particularly attractive animal. And apparently these varmints are wreaking havoc on the Lousiana environment. But it's not like minks are all that much more cuddly (minks are cousins to weasels, for that matter). But now the former is becoming a politically acceptable alternative to the latter, which just goes to show that there's absolutely no intellectual integrity to the extremist animal rights movement. People either reject fur apparel, and hence eliminate demand for furry animals, or they stop yapping about how people who like luxurious coats are animal murderers. It's pretty simple, and wholly pathetic:
TREATING nutria as a kind of “guilt free” fur is tough when you’re cutting the pelt and fur gets caught in your eyes. That’s what Micha Michelle Melancon, a fashion designer in New Orleans, found out when she was making a cloak from what is commonly known as a swamp rat.
“This is an animal,” Ms. Melancon said, after her work space became filled with fluffy piles of excess fur. “A soft, furry, once-living-and-breathing being.”
But unlike other soft and furry animals, nutria is being rebranded as a socially acceptable and environmentally friendly alternative way to wear fur. The effort culminates this Sunday, when Ms. Melancon and about 20 designers take part in a “righteous fur” fashion show at the House of Yes, an art space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Fluffy hats, muffs, leg warmers and even a wedding dress will be paraded down the runway, in a show expected to draw about 150 people. Don’t look for any celebrities in the front row. A reporter from National Geographic and someone who works at Marc Jacobs are among the expected V.I.P.’s.
But Nutria-palooza, as the show is being called, is not just about fashion. The main sponsor is the Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary Foundation, a nonprofit conservation group in Thibodaux, La., that works to preserve the 4.2-million-acre swamp in southern Louisiana that is being threatened by the furry critter.
As any resident of Louisiana knows, nutria is a herbivorous rodent, about half the size of a beaver, that is native to South America. The animals were shipped to fur farmers in the United States as early as the 19th century, and some eventually escaped into the Louisiana swamps. At first, the population was kept in check by fur trappers and a marketplace that prized the exotic fur. Hollywood starlets like Greta Garbo were fans of nutria coats.
But when the fur market started to founder in the 1980s, the nutria population soared and started to endanger the fragile ecosystem. The invasive rodent eats away the bottom of the plants that hold the coastal wetlands together.
In 2002, Louisiana started paying trappers and hunters $5 for every nutria killed. The effort to control the nutria population had some success, with bounty hunters killing about 400,000 animals last year. But the carcasses were simply discarded or left to rot in the swamp.
That’s when Cree McCree, an environmentalist and designer from New Orleans, came up with her fashion idea. Instead of wasting all that fur, she wanted to market nutria as a “guilt-free fur that belongs on the runway instead of at the bottom of the bayou,” she said.
“If they’re being killed anyway,” she added, “then why not make something beautiful out of them?”
Lame justification.
The animals don't "need" to be killed in the first place. The "fur market started to founder" because of the left's attacks on the fur industry. And now that things are out of whack in the bayou, Voilà! Kill 'em all and let the "EVIL" marketplace sort 'em out? If these environmentalists were really worth their salt they'd find a way to balance the ecosystem naturally, without having to kill the poor rodents. What a joke.
