# Were domestic cats ever raised for fur?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-domestic-cats-ever-raised-for-fur/400042>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 14, 2007, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-domestic-cats-ever-raised-for-fur/400042 "2007-04-14T02:16:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2007, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-domestic-cats-ever-raised-for-fur/400042/1 "2007-04-14T02:16:24Z")

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There’s one of the Bertie Wooster\* stories where one of Bertie’s friends has a scheme to raise cats on a “cat ranch” for fur. The plan is that there will be a rat-ranch next door, and he’ll use the rats to feed the cats. After – ahem – harvesting the cat fur, the cat meat will be used to feed the rats.

Obviously, using cats for fur would be unthinkable now, but was there ever a time when it was done? The fact that the character was thinking of “cat ranching”, itself, didn’t seem to raise any eyebrows.

\*I think it was a Bertie story, but it might have been a Ukridge story. Anyway I know it was Wodehouse, and probably was published in the 1920s

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2007, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-domestic-cats-ever-raised-for-fur/400042/2 "2007-04-14T03:19:06Z")

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> [@SoP](#):
>
> Obviously, using cats for fur would be unthinkable now, but was there ever a time when it was done?

It is apparently [still being done in China](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4476664.stm), and it is legal to sell imported cat (and dog) fur products in the UK and Britain, although illegal to farm cats and dogs for pelts there.

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2007, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-domestic-cats-ever-raised-for-fur/400042/3 "2007-04-14T03:33:39Z")

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But cat fur falls out so easily! (Take your cat to the vet or some other stressful place and Puff will leave handsful of fur–not just undercoat, but FUR–in your car.) Dogs, OTOH, I mean, what happens when it rains? You smell like a wet dog, is what.

Give me Foxy Fun Fur anyday.

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2007, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-domestic-cats-ever-raised-for-fur/400042/4 "2007-04-14T03:42:15Z")

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> [@dropzone](#):
>
> Give me Foxy Fun Fur anyday.

Just make sure your Fun Fur isn’t [actually cat fur](http://www.infurmation.com/pdf_news/032607DailyMail_Is_your_fake_fur_really_cat_fur.pdf).

After all, people have been making fur garments and trim out of cat and dog fur for centuries. I don’t think it’s subject to stress shedding once the hide is removed and treated, if you’ll pardon my mentioning it.

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**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2007, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-domestic-cats-ever-raised-for-fur/400042/5 "2007-04-14T04:07:36Z")

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Didn’t nuns used to be allowed cat fur coats (because it wasn’t ostentatious)?