A little while ago, I read an interesting blog post by Dan Riegler of Apothecary's Garden on 'ethical civet'. Civet is a substance secreted by the civet cat; the civets use this secretion to mark their territory, but perfumers have long prized it as a fixative that imparts a sexy, dirty muskiness that attracts some and repels others. As with so many industries based on the exploitation of animals, however, the production of civet traditionally has been pretty cruel; so much so, that most perfumers today choose either to exclude it from their palette, or use civetone, a synthetic version.
The Western boycott, however, hasn't benefited anybody except the big companies who do still buy civet - very discreetly indeed - at the lowest possible price. As Dan relates, captive civets are still kept in appalling conditions by farmers, most of whom remain desperately poor, the price of civet having plummetted due to low demand. There is hope on the horizon though; he and others are working to establish a model farm in Ethiopia, in which civets are kept and treated humanely, and the farmers are paid fairly.
After a lot of mental churning, I found that I agreed with Dan Riegler. It's like supporting free range farming even if one is vegan. One might wish that no-one eats any animals at all, but as that's clearly not going to happen anytime soon, it is far better to support good living conditions for farm animals, I think, even if slaughter is their ultimate fate, than stand aside altogether. So I put my money where my mouth is, and bought a tiny amount of the ethically produced civet Dan brought back from his latest trip to Ethiopia. It's tincturing now. I reeled when I first smelled it in its raw form, I must say - it's overpoweringly fecal, and yet there is a fascinating complexity to the scent, which, after a time, smells also rather like jasmine, and gardenia,and honeysuckle - white flowers which contain the (natural) chemical indole - just as feces does... It's weirdly compelling, and I'm looking forward to working with it, actually.
No question that this is an ethical issue, so your comments and opinions are especially welcome :)
Civet cat, from the 1857 classic, The Art of Perfumery and the Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants by George W. Septimus Piessse.
The civet cat - not technically a cat at all. (Wikipedia Commons)