The fur shader that renders the objects 14 times is deadly slow indeed, although it is using one of the possible techinques, it would be better if someone would write a more 'bumpmapping'-like fur shader which doesn't render an objects 14 times .. By the way, Black and White 2 is using the 'fake fur' technique with sprites or so it seems and looks pretty convincing to me. Perhaps something to look into and try,

Cheers