Woof.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Many fur or fur-trimmed jackets sold in the United States as having "faux fur" -- or not labeled at all -- are actually made, at least in part, from dog fur, the Humane Society of the United States said at a Capitol Hill news conference Wednesday.
Out of 25 jackets that it tested, the group said, 24 were incorrectly labeled. In many cases, it said, tests showed the fur came from raccoon dogs, nocturnal residents of Asian and northern European forests that bear a remarkable resemblance to raccoons.
It said it had bought the jackets in the United States from a variety of department stores, including Macy's, Burlington Coat Factory and J.C. Penney. Designers and brands included Sean John, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, it said.

It's disgustingly obvious that even the faux-est of faux fur is designed to resemble a slain animal. While I find it more tacky than fashionable, I realize that the popular winter-wear adornment is not going anywhere and until recently has been an easily dismissible eyesore. I suppose it's now naive to think that stores who carry faux fur would, gee, I don't know - label them correctly?

People who are interested in/purchase them fall into two categories: those who would buy real fur if they could afford it without an ounce of moral guilt, and those who wouldn't knowingly wear an animal slain in the name of fashion but like to sport the look without weighing heavily on the conscience. I find the former to be nearly beyond help. I can only hope that at some point in life, they will have an epiphany that resembles the deer hunter's come-to-Jesus moment in the movie Powder.

Many of the latter will probably not go so far as to stop wearing the dog-trimmed items from their Penney's/Macy's winter wardrobe, but I hope it will keep them from purchasing another (not that sales will go through the roof once they're accurately labeled as "fur stripped from the body of a poor defenseless animal - and not just any animal, but a dog, a distant cousin of your own little Scrappy").

I realize that animals are used for our benefit in hundreds of [appalling] ways, but there's a fine line between consuming meat (albeit selfishly) for its taste and nutritional content (that could admittedly be found in animal-friendly products) and viewing animals with such selfish disregard so as to view them as nothing but a material with which to line carseats or a new floor-length coat to show off in circles of women truly named Kitty. Great strides have been made to make the process of butchering animals for their meat as humane as possible, keeping them calm in moments leading up to their quick death (I highly recommend "My Life in Pictures" by Temple Grandin), but the trapping, beating, and other cruel measures taken to capture and kill an animal for its fur aren't done with an ounce of compassion.

Time to wake up and feel some social responsibility. If the idea of stripping rabbits and minks doesn't hit close to home, hopefully the dogs hanging on clothes racks in Macy's will do the trick.