ABSTRACT
This chapter tells the story of what fur is and what people do with it in places that seem, if not particularly far away from Kraków in terms of geographical distance, then quite strikingly different culturally. It outlines some of the questions an animal product studied in an urban context poses about production and nature. Phenotypic evaluation enables scientists to rank animals without genetic evaluation. The phenotypes observable in a fur animal also dictated the price the pelts stripped from these animals got at auction. The chapter suggests that the strangeness of the 'fur animal' category lies in its status as an umbrella term for many different species of animals and its historical contingency. Farmers, scientists who work with animals and some fur retailers alike had it in their best interest for 'beautiful' and valuable fur to be produced.
