Carpets made of Meerkats are being sold in a shop in Birmingham. The carpets are said to be of very good quality and, as Meerkats aren't a protected species, the vendors are perfectly within their rights to sell them.
Meerkat wool is very luxurious and as well as making great carpets, they apparently make great socks and jumpers too. In the far east Meerkats are seen as vermin and are routinely culled to prevent the spread of pneumonic plague.
This creates a surplus of Meerkat fur and it very often gets recycled and woven into a variety of useful things.
Meerkat fans all over the world are thinking about protesting about the mass culling of Meerkats. They aren't, however, protesting about the killing of cats in China in order to make Meerkat replica toys...that apparently is acceptable... so long as nobody talks about it.
By Katarina Frogpond.
