My wife's contest win....oh what to do?

[JW]

So my wife gets a phone call informing her that she has won a prize in a local shopping mall's contest draw.

Well of course she's all excited thinking that she had won the trip to Puerto Vallarta but she is informed that she has won a "beautiful" Berger Christiansen cashmere cloak with CHINCHILLA trim!!!

 

This thing has a retail of about $4,000

There is no way in hell that will be worn in our household.

 

So what do you do?

sell it?

give it to charity?

burn it?

 

It just leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

[Richard]

I'd bury it personally. I don't think there is really an ethical dilemma as such, the prize was given, not paid for, and not chosen. I guess you could sell it, I personally wouldn't be comfortable with that, I dunno, taking money for a dead body or whatever, would creep me out. Giving it away would seem a bit better, but knowing that it would go on to be worn would irritate me regardless. I'd only be comfortable burying it, but I think any action is understandable really (other than wearing it)

[JW]

exactly!!!

We just can't feel good about someone wearing that thing.

 

It's a tough one though. One option would be donating it to charity which would raffle it off making money for the charity.

This really sucks!!!

[Michelle]

You might inform the shopping mall of your ethical dilemma and ask if they can substitute cash instead for the prize... or offer a suitable substitution of similar value. It's worth a try, anyway.

 

In the US, we're expected to pay taxes on the value of prizes... if it's like that where you are, I suppose you could also refuse the prize and have them give it to an alternate winner. It would suck to have to pay taxes on something you don't even want.

 

If it were me, I would probably sell it or else give it away to someone who needed something warm to wear or donate to a battered woman's shelter. (I'm assuming it's like a warm coat or something, anyway)

[offense74]

Fur stores are so desperate today they just give their shit away?

Return it for shopping mall credit and get a Mac. If you can only get store credit at the fur store then return it, get fake furs and give them away. $4000 can be used to help others (including animals) and it seems unnecessary to just throw it away.

[Richard]

Yeah ask for something different, they may well understand that you don't want it.

[Odidnetne]

....The coat is "worth" $4,000? After stating my opinion on fur yesterday in General Discussion, I feel my blood pressure rising that anyone would pay that much for something that ugly.

[JW]

That was our first thought but it wasn't an option with them.

In Canada there are no taxes on contest winnings so that's not a factor either.

 

It could probably raise quite a bit of money for a charity. Does that outweigh the ill feelings of contributing to the fur wearing public???

 

You might inform the shopping mall of your ethical dilemma and ask if they can substitute cash instead for the prize... or offer a suitable substitution of similar value. It's worth a try, anyway.

 

In the US, we're expected to pay taxes on the value of prizes... if it's like that where you are, I suppose you could also refuse the prize and have them give it to an alternate winner. It would suck to have to pay taxes on something you don't even want.

 

If it were me, I would probably sell it or else give it away to someone who needed something warm to wear or donate to a battered woman's shelter. (I'm assuming it's like a warm coat or something, anyway)

[Richard]

you'd be getting a fur-wearer to give money to animal charities. That's a good way to look at it

[Guest]

I wouldn't destroy it since that does nothing...if its given publicly you should act as if your accepting it and say why you really aren't.

[Richard]

I wouldn't destroy it since that does nothing...if its given publicly you should act as if your accepting it and say why you really aren't.

 

Well, if I was going to be killed and have my skin cut off, and I had the choice that my skin was either thrown away or someone would parade around in it, I'd choose that it would be thrown away. It isn't a huge issue, in comparison to the killing itself, but I think it is further insult or degredation to animals to have their dead bodies displayed like that.

[Guest]

PETA takes tons of fur donations and sends them to poor parts of the world where people don't give a crap what they have on so long as its warm...this is a much better use

[Richard]

PETA takes tons of fur donations and sends them to poor parts of the world where people don't give a crap what they have on so long as its warm...this is a much better use

 

Yeah I think that's a good use for it

[ronnie kray]

i agree. donating it seems to be the best idea. i like the idea of giving it to someone who can't afford it, but needs to keep warm. then all those rich pricks can look at them in envy.

 

something similiar, but much less expensive, happened to me. we had a small contest at work. just giving away little things, like coffe mugs, pens, movie passes, stuff like that. i won one of these prizes. at first i was excited, then they announced my prize: a genuine LEATHER BOUND journal. i was like "oh great... real leather". i ended up giving it away to this girl. she seemed happy about it.

[andgbr]

i guess selling is the best thing you should do, burning it wouldn't bring the animals back to life, nor rejecting it, the best thing is accepting it, selling, and then donate everything ( or a part ) to a animal rights organization.

[JW]

sigh........

 

 

i guess selling is the best thing you should do, burning it wouldn't bring the animals back to life, nor rejecting it, the best thing is accepting it, selling, and then donate everything ( or a part ) to a animal rights organization.

[andgbr]

sigh........

 

 

i guess selling is the best thing you should do, burning it wouldn't bring the animals back to life, nor rejecting it, the best thing is accepting it, selling, and then donate everything ( or a part ) to a animal rights organization.

 

what's wrong?

 

the best thing that can be done is selling, getting money and selling...

if you donate something like that to a homeless you will save one human, and selling and donating to a AR organization might save hundreds or who perhaps thousands of animals.. i guess that's the best thing that can be done... i don't think they will give the same money instead of the coat, maybe they were doing that because they wanted to get rid of the fur i don't know.. so, sell it.. the most 'ethical' thing in this situation.

 

and don't reject it.. if you do someone else will receive that coat, and they will do whatever they want with that..

[Kathryn]

I would simply refuse it.

I couldn't in good conscience even touch the thing!

They can't force you to take it, can they?

If it's being given away in some kind of ceremony, even better, siince your refusal, and reasons, can be stated publicly.

 

The other alternatives: I wouldn't sell it, because that just means the dead animal is on someone else's back. It wouldn't feel right to me.

[JW]

you see, these last 2 posts summarize the dilemma.

 

andgbr brings up a good point though.

what's done is done. making some money for charity might just bring some good out of this.

[Richard]

I think that selling it and giving money to charity is a great thing, especially if it's an animal charity. Again, if it was my skin, I would be happy with that if I knew that someone would part like $2000 for my skin, and it would go to charity. That'd be cool with me, I'd see the point of it. You won't ever know what those animals would have wanted. I think the main thing is that whatever you do will be with respect to those animals, you're not looking to exploit or degrade them further, I think that's enough. Giving it to charity, selling it for money, or getting rid of it, I think they're all ethically acceptable.

[veganmadre]

I agree that selling the coat is better than the other options. Whichever individual is willing to buy the coat is obviously on the hunt for a fur coat. They're going to buy one regardless. Should their money go to a business actually SUPPORTING ANIMAL SLAUGHTER? I think that answer is obvious. Ethically, I still think that even if you sold the coat and kept all the money for personal use, you are still serving more justice than discarding the coat or refusing it. Whether the money be used to help support your eco-friendly, compassionate family or used to further other progressive causes, it'd say you're making the best of the situation. It's awful that a fur coat was "the prize". I'm horribly sorry that you are left with this ethical decision.

[Richard]

Yeah that's true, it's better that the money goes to A) a charity or B) your family rather than C) some twatty company which kills animals, which is what would happen if you don't sell this coat, they'd go buy one from a regular company or whatever.

[Guest]

I'd sell it if I knew the persons personality who bought it...what if its someone who doesn't make a ton of money but they buy it and it sparks an interest in fur...then they save to buy another. I don't know if I'd risk selling it to a stranger...plus if its worth $2,000 I doubt a private person could sell one for that much since one of the "benefits" of buying a fur coat from a store is getting it custom sized for free by a tailor for you.

[andgbr]

I would simply refuse it.

I couldn't in good conscience even touch the thing!

They can't force you to take it, can they?

If it's being given away in some kind of ceremony, even better, siince your refusal, and reasons, can be stated publicly.

 

The other alternatives: I wouldn't sell it, because that just means the dead animal is on someone else's back. It wouldn't feel right to me.

 

 

well, if you feel like like stating publicly, i think you should call someone else to be in the area to protest the fur that you're receiving ( don't refuse that ), while you pretend to be some omnivore and defending yourself with some nonsense arguments..

while your friend has all the answers for your arguments..

just like theater..acting is good sometimes..

you get the coat and you also spread an idea.

 

if that doesn't work you would still receive a really expensive coat to sell, and then you could donate to some organization.

 

I'd sell it if I knew the persons personality who bought it...what if its someone who doesn't make a ton of money but they buy it and it sparks an interest in fur...then they save to buy another. I don't know if I'd risk selling it to a stranger...plus if its worth $2,000 I doubt a private person could sell one for that much since one of the "benefits" of buying a fur coat from a store is getting it custom sized for free by a tailor for you.

 

in that case, sell it on ebay, the buyer is going to look for it and the probability that their interest will increase will be much lower.

the good thing is that you won't even have to know the buyer personally.

[jonzen]

This is a challenging ethical decision isn't it? After thinking it over long and hard, I agree with most of the forum here, that selling the coat and giving the money to a charity or an animal rights group would be beneficial. Perhaps getting some press on this decision would also be beneficial. No name calling, just explaining that you cannot in good conscience accept this "prize" and why, and then where the money will go from the sale of the coat.

 

Also, just a suggestion from a Buddhist guy, you could have a little ceremony for the coat in which you take away any negative energy from the coat's history, surrounding the moment in good healing energy. But that might be too woo woo? (I'm originally from California, 60's, you know?)

 

Anyway, I think you are on the right track with your decision. I admire this community for the process that has lead to this place.