Small cages, cold, non-existent hygienic sanitary conditions, stress for the confinement, fear, abuse and distress: millions of fur-bearing animals including foxes, raccoons, minks, beavers, muskrats, otters, and others are killed each year on fur farms by electrocution and in the wild by drowning, trapping, or beating. Victims guilty to have a fur, that the industry wants to make new products. Fur designers support this cruel market.
The ones who “dictate the law” about fashion, style and fashion have declared that the “fur is couture”, and have facilitated the return after a long period of crisis of the sector.
In the last years the fur lost its glamour and lost the role of status symbol; this was thanks to the work of animal protection associations that showed the reality behind fur trade.
China isthe world’s largest exporter of fur garments into a global context market. Industry figures estimate that China produces over 1 million mink and fox skins each year – the equivalent of 11% of the world’s mink. There are no regulations governing fur farms in China—farmers can house and slaughter animals however they see fit. On these farms, foxes, minks, rabbits, and other animals pace and shiver in outdoor wire cages, exposed to driving rain, freezing nights. These animals suffer miserable lives and excruciating deaths.
Dog and cat fur is often falsely labeled to obscure the true source of the fur. Dog
fur products have been sold as gae-wolf, goupee, Asian wolf, China wolf, Mongolia dog fur, Sobaki, Pommern wolf, dogue de Chine, and loup d’Asie. Cat fur has sold as rabbit, maopee, goyangi, katzenfelle, natuerliches mittel, chat de Chine. After a long campaign, “European Parliament legislative resolution of 19 June 2007 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council banning the placing on the market and the import of or export from the Community of cat and dog fur and products containing such fur”, was approved. This ban is important but in China animals are skinned alive in the name of the fashion. Fur industry is trying to re-established its position
in the fashion world. In the last years, the international fur industry has waged a global campaign aimed at dispelling the moral stigma attached to wearing fur. Mixing fur with silk, wool, as well as new colours, have added novelty and versatility to fur.
Every new fall-winter collection, designers try to introduce fur: stoles, coats, ponchos, shawls, scarfs, bags, hats, fur hats, legwarmers, gloves, belts, even keyrings and cell phone covers. The fur ads you might see in magazines portray fur coats as a symbol of elegance. But these ads fail to show how the original owners of these coats met their horrible deaths.