Check out Etsy. Do a search there for "vintage fur". It seems people are both selling vintage fur and also making things from it. Maybe list them there to sell, or contact one of the people who make things with fur to see if they want to buy them from you. It really depends if they are in good shape as garments. Maybe you can even combine the furs with each other or with other fabric or leather to make a coat that fits you. Karin L Here is a link that might be useful: Etsy - vintage and crafters marketplace

So it is clear from scientific studies that physiologically, anatomically, and instinctively, man is perfectly suited to a diet for fruit, vegetables, nuts, and grains. And plenty of carrion, although our delicate modern minds don't want to think about that. Quite a few archaeological sites of extremely early human habitations (2.5-1.8 million years ago, Homo habilis and Homo erectus) have yielded bones showing marks of human teeth made AFTER marks made by teeth of other species, as well as marks of early stone tools (and the presence of such tools, often broken and so discarded) indicating dissection of those animals. Analysis of human coprolites, or what would politely be described as fossilized dung, from Homo erectus sites already shows evidence of extensive meat consumption (actually coprolites are really nifty once you get over the ick factor), and human-made stone tools purely for the use of hunting, such as spear tips, first appear approximately 1.5 million years ago. That doesn't even allow for animals intentionally killed by such things as thrown stones, wooden or unmodified-bone implements such as clubs or fish gorges made from thorns, trapping, hand-catching (such as fish "tickling", egg collecting, or hunting for animal dens to catch extremely young animals), as well as the "lucky find" of an animal that died of natural causes. Mollusc shells (snails, clams, oysters) abound in Paleolithic sites located near water. As for the "impossibility" of eating raw flesh "without the use of a knife and fork", sorry Jen, but that's outright bunk. Hunter-gatherer tribes (what few survive Western, well, let's call a spade a spade, invasion and habitat destruction) do still do so - two of the anthropologists I studied under at university had spent many years in the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies living with hunter-gatherer tribes as members of the tribes would live, one specializing in the Kalahari and the other with tribes in New Guinea and the Amazon. A great deal of perfectly edible animal protein does not even require being so much as smacked with a rock, although most of us wimpy Westerners wouldn't consider grubs, insects, raw eggs from wild-bird nests, and such as "edible". For example, Australian Aborigines who enjoy "bush tucker" (their traditional - and we're talking a good 50,000 years here - foods gleaned from the wild) covet a large moth larva called a witchetty grub, which would have most North Americans barfing on their shoes. Even some of the survival training of the American military include obtaining and consuming raw animal protein with one's bare hands, the basic assumption of the course being that one has lost all of one's equipment and being in an situation where building a fire with the old spinning stick technique isn't practical. (Someone I know went through advanced survival training and absolutely loved to tell gross-out stories about his dining adventures.) Personally, I agree with those who say that humans, like many of the other primate species, have evolved to be opportunistic omnivores - we as a species did and will eat pretty much anything we can get our grubby little hands on. It's only in relatively recent times that we've been able to afford to get as picky as we are now. As for whether I wear fur, leather, etc., I used to have a mink collar for my peacoat but it was cut from a coat from the 1960s and just got too tatty to wear, I have had hats and mittens from the skins of rabbits raised as food, and I once had slippers made from moosehide from a moose hunted for food. My leather jacket wore out and I haven't replaced it because they're too expensive. I wear leather shoes (or fabric ones) because plastic ones make my feet stinky and prone to fungi like athlete's foot, and as a previous poster points out, there's the whole petrochemical issue to non-leather shoes (besides fabric and latex rubber, and I dare ya to go through a New England winter in canvas shoes LOL) so you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. IIRC, anti-fur groups typically throw red paint (PETA claims that they do not advocate nor do they sponsor such actions), not blood, on fur-wearers. One reason I have heard straight from the mouth of one of these eco-vandals is that paint cannot be removed without destroying the fur, while blood can be removed fairly easily. (And then there's that minor hypocrisy of using blood to protest killing, unless these folks are donating their own blood to do it...)

That's why I won't wear fake fur. (That's one reason. I also think it looks as stupid as the dogs who were wearing wigs on Letterman. To me, a dog in human hair looks no more idiotic than a human in animal hair, But, that's another story.) When I was in Macy's a couple of years ago, I looked at some jackets that were labeled as faux. They felt waaaay too real and soft to be fake to me. I didn't trust them. Later I heard about the dogs and cats being used. I wasn't surprised. I think I read that you should never ever buy Korean faux.

Sue I inherited a lovely mink swing coat with the same problems as your coat. If the pelts are strong, so the fur is basically good (you can tell by brushing your hand over it to se eif there are any hard spots) it's easy for a furrier to remake it. My swing coat was cut down to deemphasise the swing, and the sleeves, which had fur inside of them as well because of their huge openings, were unfolded, steamed and then cuffs were made of the extra fur from the body and the sleves are now nice puffy sleeves on a fitted coat. You'd never now it was a Jackie O era coat :)