Medical science allows humans with nearly all of their skin missing to be completely regrown. How? Skin grafts. A small tissue sample is taken from the healthy skin and is cultivated in a lab. Through constant stimulation, the skin cells replicate at an incredible rate.

Lets do the same thing with furry animals. Love the soft luxurious feel of otter fur but don't want the poor animal clubbed? Mystified by the beuty of the ocelot's spotted flesh but can't bear to see this endangered cat murdered? Take a skin sample and start growing it in a lab.

Eventually, we could have a whole line of PETA certified furs.
-- Aq_Bi, May 05 2005

But then heckling people who wear fur would become impossible, as you wouldn't be able to tell whether they were wearing real fur or synthetic.
I have always wanted to wear whale though.
-- hidden truths, May 05 2005


Surely the beauty of this idea is that all fur would be real *and* synthetic?

With no need to club the little seals/ocelots/whales (erm...) to get their brittle shining talons on the season's new fur styles surely even the cruellest fashion fans would be happy to switch.

Can't be sure of Cruella D'J. Lo coming around, but other than that, I think it's a goer.
-- DocBrown, May 05 2005


Laugh it up, fuzzball.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 05 2005


I'm guessing the most devout PETites would consider even cell sampling to be too cruel for their little buddies, and would not give up on the heckling and paint flinging even in light of this development. For such people, there is no bottom to the well of overzealous, self-righteous indignation.
-- Soterios, May 05 2005


I had no idea that skin grafts could grow hair?!

And if this idea was feasible, what's next: Permanent fur coats? (Grow the fur right on your body).
-- sophocles, May 05 2005


A bloody good idea. Feasibility-wise, I suspect that you'd have problems growing a sufficient thickness of skin, and you may find that things like stripes, spots and (perhaps) hair direction wouldn't come out right. But, still, a bloody good idea.

Cultured fur would probably be outrageously expensive (as opposed to unnecessarily expensive, as is the case with real fur), thereby adding to its appeal.
-- Basepair, May 05 2005


When I started reading this I thought that it was going to be animal fur skin grafts for humans... bun either way though.
-- goatfaceKilla, May 06 2005


Yes, I thought that too, goatfaceKilla.

Ever notice how animal rights people never harass Hell's Angels for wearing leather? I can never understand why...............
-- DesertFox, May 07 2005


You know what this would give rise to if it ever caught on? Skin factories. I find it very disheartening that in the several thousand years human civilization has been around, nobody's bothered to build a skin factory! Ridiculous!
-- Joolin, Dec 07 2009



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