I recently heard talk about all the fur out there that claims to be faux may not be. It may actually be real fur, from a once live animal. Now personally, I just avoid the whole idea of any fur on a coat or any other article of clothing or any type of statue that is covered in anything that even resembles fur, just to be safe. I would hate the idea of inadvertently purchasing something that I thought was faux fur to find out it could possibly be real, ripped from the hide of an unfortunate animal. Makes me sick just to think about it.
According to the Humane Society, there are three tests you can do to find out if the item you want to purchase is actually real or truly a fake.
1. Check the base of the fur for skin or fabric - pull away the base of the fur. If it is fake you will see threadwork backing from where the hairs emerge. If it is real, it will look more like leather/skin.
2. Check the tips of the hair for tapering - if it is fake, the hair will be cut straight across (although this may change in the future). If it is real, it will taper to a point.
3. The Burn Test - check by burning a few hairs - animal hair will smell like human hair, fake fur made from acrylic or polyester does not have the same smell.
But again, things are changing and the "experts" are learning new techniques all the time to get away with using real animal fur instead of the synthetics. Why, you may ask, use real instead of synthetic? Perhaps stray dogs/cats are more abundant and thus cheaper than purchasing synthetic fur as collars on coats. As sickening as that thought is to even think about, consider the possibility the next time you go to purchase something that is labeled as "faux" fur.