Firstly, I don't feel strongly either way, I eat meat and I enjoy it, I also wear various forms of leather and suppose 'enjoy' that too.
I watched a very informative programme recently on Channel 4 where a journalist who loved fur went on a mission to check out either side of the arguement, it was very enlightening.
She went to a Mink farm in Norway (I think) the animals were there purely for a business, breeding them for a fantastic fur, they were killed by a gas which just sent them to sleep, so humanely. Every part of the Mink was used in some way or another, so their very existence was due to the farm.
She then went to America or Canada and obtained a license to hunt, she eventually found another hunter that was prepared to let her accompany him and film, this was a guy that set traps and caught mostly beavers, classed as vermin there, like a giant rat, he caught a few and explained that it was something very much akin to his ancestry, he was something like a fifth generation that had done this for a living, he skinned the animal and showed us the way it worked there. He also had a coat, handed down through generations and that was used because it was so cold there.
Then she was shown some barbaric video of animals being skinned alive, I think this was in China, it was awful and it made even me cry, not something that is easy to do :mysmilie_697:
Now here is my problem, I will be totally honest with you, I eat meat,,,like I said earlier I enjoy it, I wear leather....I would go so far as to say I enjoy that too, I don't really have a problem with the first two encounters the journalist had with the Mink farm and the generations of hunters, however all the pelts end up in the same place, the journo on Channel four went to an auction house in Europe (can't remember exactly, may have been Denmark) but basically, no matter how they were obtained they were grouped by colour, for example if you submitted a white fox fur (not sure if there is such a thing but bear with me) it would not matter wether it was skinned alive in China or from a humane farm in europe, it was put in one 'lot' and auctioned together. This is how you do not know what your buying.
So I expect Denis Basso just buys from an Auction house like this, along with many other designers, where do you draw a line.
Until something is done to differentiate between the furs and their origin I do not really see me being able to make a stance, I have avoided fur mainly due to other peoples reaction but have bought items from designers that use it as have some of you.