Italy Confiscates Counterfeit Cashmere Containing Rat Fur

Yecch. But look at the upside — it’s a good excuse to skimp on the luxury stuff and go for good old American wool.

Clothing being sold as cashmere actually contains rat fur, it appears, as Italian police arrest 14 people and seize more than a million garments.

The Chinese-born suspects were arrested in the Italian cities of Livorno and Rome after a year-long investigation, and have been cautioned for fraud, the Italian news agency ANSA reports.

The clothes claiming to be made of cashmere contained a mixture of acrylic and viscose, as well as “fur from rats and other animals”, judicial sources say. Bogus merino wool, silk and pashmina garments were also seized.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.