OK, on further exploration, I am way somewhat more optimistic about shutting down the industry than I was at first, and the paranoia and insularity of fur producers makes me much more pessimistic than before about engineered biosafety improvements at fur farms, at least in Western countries. I wouldn’t be surprised if the situation is quite a bit different in authoritarian regimes like China and Russia, where I bet there’s much less animal liberation activity and, in China at least, a lot more state capacity to crack down on biohazardous practices (although perhaps China would be willing to either ban the trade or use propaganda to sanction the wearing of fur).
OK, on further exploration, I am
waysomewhat more optimistic about shutting down the industry than I was at first, and the paranoia and insularity of fur producers makes me much more pessimistic than before about engineered biosafety improvements at fur farms, at least in Western countries. I wouldn’t be surprised if the situation is quite a bit different in authoritarian regimes like China and Russia, where I bet there’s much less animal liberation activity and, in China at least, a lot more state capacity to crack down on biohazardous practices (although perhaps China would be willing to either ban the trade or use propaganda to sanction the wearing of fur).