not so pc yarn...

So, I feel a little uneasy about this one…

My friend L, went on a three week trip to New Zealand. He was nice enough to bring back some very nice skeins of NZ produced yarn which he purchased from a local NZ yarn shop. I was very surprised to feel the yarn was sooooooo soft and looked at the label for it’s content: 30% possum fur. Initially, I thought, wow, this is sooo nice and soft, I’ll have to think of a special project to use it for. Well, upon sharing the new finds with some knitting friends I came to hear that possums are thought of as pests in NZ and are killed and used to produce all sorts of things including this here yarn. Sigh…I’ve been trying to do some online research to find out how the fur is obtained and manufactured, but haven't found much.

http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=106593&z=195

Of course this leads one to think about yarn production in general and now I’m questioning ALL of my yarn purchases. I’ve got angora, cashmere, even plain ol’ wool has me concerned. What conditions are these animals subjected?

Anyone out there know?

I found it difficult to find stuff online that isn’t from the perspective of the fur industry…like this one…http://www.thread.co.nz/article/466

Guess I need to refine my search criteria.