If you’ve been on Instagram lately, you’ve probably noticed some colorful, furry phone cases blowing up. At first glance, they look pretty harmless: the brightly-colored cases celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian have been spotted using have been dubbed “your new furry best friends.” Unfortunately, that’s not the case, though. The products — with names like “Lisa” and “Frances” — were living, breathing creatures before they became the latest must-have accessory.
Wild and Woolly, a company that prides themselves on making “unnecessary accessories for all seasons” sells handmade phone cases and earrings made from furs that are both “ranch-raised and free-range.” Yes, they’re super soft and cuddly. Why? Because those furs come from animals. And the fact that they’re killing them for “unnecessary accessories” just makes them even worse.
According to the product listings on their website, all the phone cases and earrings are made from mink, fox, beaver, and lamb. And because the products are made from either ranch-raised or free-range furs, that means these animals are packed into small cages, live in unbearable conditions, and are killed in the most inhumane ways imaginable. If you’ve ever seen a horror movie where someone gets their skin ripped off when they’re fully conscious, that’s real-life for these animals: to get the best quality fur, they’re poisoned, electrocuted, gassed, or get their necks broken, and most of them are still conscious while they’re being skinned alive. So just because companies claim their furs are ranch-raised and free-range, that doesn’t mean they’re humane. In the end, they’re still killing an animal to make an “unnecessary” product and doing so in a way that no living creature should have to endure.
If you have friends who are still thinking about spending hundreds of dollars on one of these phone cases or pairs of earrings, show them just how sweet these animals are and why they don’t deserve to end up as an accessory. Anyone who’s dying to have a furry phone case can easily find a faux version that’s a fraction of the cost.