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TOPIC:
"Faux" Fur Controversy
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"Faux" Fur Controversy
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Numbers Don't Lie
 March 9, 2006:
According to government estimates, 500,000 garments sold in the United States
every year are trimmed with bobcat, fox, rabbit, or other animal fur,
potentially with nothing on the label to indicate there is any fur on the
garment. With the labeling loophole in place, consumers are left in the dark;
they have no idea that their new clothes may contain fur from animals—even dogs
and cats—whose treatment can include being skinned alive, anally electrocuted,
or held struggling underwater to drown.
Source:
HSUS web page
The
Slaughter behind 200-million-yuan
($25,784,825 as of 2/14/07) Revenue from Fur
In Hebei province’s Shangcun Market - which accounts for over
60% of China’s
pelt trade - the phenomenon of live skinning of animals has become a cause for
concern. Shangcun Market is loated in Suning county - according to the official
Chinese statistics, Suning has 152
sizable fur farms, 65
villages specializing in fur production with around
10,000 farmers owing a total
stock of 470,000 raccoon dogs,
foxes, mink and other valuable fur-bearing animals. In Dudaying village,
Xinji county, Hebei, there is a large-scale raccoon dog farm with rows of
several hundred iron cages.
Here you can hear the frequent whimpering of the animals like the sound of
babies crying. An official from Suning country Party Committee's
propaganda department confirms the county has a population of 330,000 and around
50,000 are employed in fur-related jobs;
Shangcun town has China's largest unprocessed fur market, with a turnover of of
3.5 billion yaun (330 million or over
$42,544,962USD as of 2/14/07). Suning country's revenue from fur
grew from 80 million yuan in 2002
to over 200 million yuan in 2004.
Source:
Article from the Beijing News online of 5 April 2005, via Swiss Animal
Protection
Special note: the article has now been removed from the Internet, but the SAP
pdf file is available for your reading.
April 8, 2005 - "Fur Trade getting on the right track" per Chinese spokesperson
More than 30 million pieces of fur
are traded at the Shangcun market each year. Zhang Shuhua, deputy chairman of
the China Leather Industry Association, told reporters yesterday that China's
fur industry has experienced rapid growth in the past few years. Last year the
import and export volume of fur products increased by 54 per cent and
123 per cent respectively (exports
in 2004 were over 2 billion USD).
Source:
People's Daily Online
Presently, China is the second biggest commercial partner of Canada.
According to industry Canada, the Canadian fur and retail industry imported $5
million in animal pelts and $28 million
in fur trimmed apparel from China in 2004. Despite the distinct
possibility that many of these imported furs are from dogs and cats, the
government has indicated that it has no intention of prohibiting these imports.
By the year 2010, the Canadian government hopes to
double commercial trade with China.
Source:
Global Action Network FAQ sheet
1997: HSUS
investigation reveals nearly 2,000,000 dogs and cats are killed each year
worldwide to
satisfy the fur trade.
Source:
Heather Mills McCarthy's
advocacy web site
Long haired
cats are kept as pets in China, yet ironically an estimated
500,000 short haired
cats, mainly ginger or tabby colored are raised for their pelts, estimated
figures are that about a half million cats are killed each season from October
to February. Cat fur is hard to distinguish from other furs once it has been
dyed - President of a German company prominent in the cat fur trade.
Source:
Voice4Dogs
The
latest figures from the Fur Information Council of America (FICA) reveals the
fur trim market to be worth nearly $500
million annually. Source:
Fur Kills
June
17, 1999 - $1.27 Billion in Retail Sales in 1998
Despite an effort by environmentalists to end the killing, one out of every five
women in the United States still owns a fur coat. Fur designers have increased
from 42 private designers in 1985 to more than 200 in 1998. Fur sales then
climbed to $1.27 billion in U.S. retail sales during 1998. Source:
Sun
Advocate archives
China is now the world's largest exporter of fur clothing and the biggest fur
trade production and processing hub on earth. In 2003, according to Chinese
customs figures, the overall volume of fur imports and exports totaled
$997.6
million. At least 95% of fur clothing produced in China is exported overseas,
with Europe, the USA, Japan, Korea and Russia among the customers. Typical
products exported include fur, fur garments and fabric or leather garments
adorned with fur trim. Globally, the retail value of sales of fur garments, trim
and accessories exceeds $11 billion and is expanding. The EU is now the
world's biggest consumer of fur. The UK has become a global center for fur
buyers.
Source:
Care for the Wild, "The Gory Fur Trail from China to the UK"
The fur trade
does not deny that it deals in dog and cat skins and it is quite legal for
products made from this fur to be sold in Britain and Europe. Fur products do
not have to be labeled by species. One cat fur coat alone requires the killing
of up to 24 cats. 12 to 15 adult dogs are killed to manufacture each coat made
from dog fur - and an horrific 40 or more if puppies or kittens are used.
Source: Voice4Dogs
HSI estimates
around 2 million cats and dogs are killed for fur each year, with an estimated
5,400 cats and dogs killed in China each day.
Source:
News24.com
Average cat pelt weighs 1/4 of a pound.
The
Price of Suffering
 Half
of the world's fur trade is traded through Great Britain
 In
2000, of the 500 tons of fur traded through here,
66 tons were "other fur" (dog
& cat)
HSUS
found "gae-wolf" (dog fur as it is known in Germany) on an Internet website; at
one auction alone, 10,000 "gae-wolf" pelts were on the block - auction
authorities said the pelts came from the November and December 'harvesting' -
majority of these skins were sold to a Belgium furrier.
At one
German auction alone, a shipment from a Chinese company to the Czech Republic
(reportedly for the Czech army), contained 5,329 kilograms
(11,924 pounds) of
"house cat skin jackets + pelts," representing the slaughter of
40,000 to 55,000
cats.
One
shipment from China to Italy was seized for lack of proper permits. It contained
4.7 tons (9,400 pounds) of dog hides.
At a
German auction, one Korean dog fur (German shepherd) pelt sold for £9 ($17.57 as
of 2/13/07).
At one
Chinese company dealing in "animal by-products," a fur "plate" of 6 to 8 gray or
orange cat pelts may be purchased for £13.50 ($26.36 in USD as of 2/13/07). Two
plates make a short jacket. Three plates make up a coat. That’s
12 to 16 cats
who suffer and die for each jacket, 18 to 24 cats killed for each coat.
Cat-head plates are also available at this factory-
36 cat heads per plate - at
a price of £10 ($19.56 USD as of 2/13/07).
A
Beijing company declared its ability to export
20,000 cat skins as well as
20,000 dog skins between January and March 1998. In January the company had in
stock the pelts of 50,000 cats and 50,000 dogs. Gray and orange cat pelts were
£2 each; grey and tan dog pelts were £15.50 each.
(Re: including this data from 1998 -
It should be noted although the U.S. has 'officially' banned the import of dog
and cat fur products, items with a value of less than $150 EACH do NOT require a
label and as of 12/06, the HSUS tested 25 high fashion garments, finding ALL
were either NOT labeled or mislabeled as to the species and content of the fur.
This is DESPITE the 1951 U.S. law on fur products and the 2000 Dog
& Cat Protection Law).
Gray
and orange cat skins at one Chinese company were priced at £2.each ($3.91 USD as
of 2/13/07); gray and yellow dog skins were £5.50 each ($10.74 USD as of
2/13/07). A fur plate of 6 to 8 cats was priced at £13.50 ($26.36 USD as of 2/13/07) at one Chinese company. At one Chinese factory, one cat skin
cost £33 ($64.43 USD 2/13/07), at another £2.50 ($4.99 USD 2/13/07), in Beijing
£2 ($3.91 USD 2/13/07).
One Chinese company reportedly sells 10,000 dog and cat fur coats to Russia each
year, and claims that companies in Europe are using dog skin in shoes and
handbags and use dog fur in fur trim, though it may not be identified as dog
fur.
April 16, 2006: The international and British fur industry, eager not to damage
their hard fought for new hip image, was quick to distance itself from fur
produced in China, asserting that hardly any of it enters UK or European
markets. Their claims have now been refuted. According to figures from the
British Fur Trade Association, its members turn over a massive £500m a year
($973,700,353 USD as of 2/13/07), making Britain the world’s biggest fur buyer.
Source:
Care for the Wild
As
ANIMAL PEOPLE editorially pointed out in March 2006, there are already believed
to be more than one million pet dogs in Beijing alone, an estimated 150 million
dog-keeping homes throughout China, and up to
300 million total pet dogs,
according to the highest official estimates. That would be
30 times more dogs
than are eaten––and almost five times as many dogs as there are in the U.S.,
which has the third largest dog population of any nation. The Chinese ratio of
pet dogs to humans is already not less than the ratio in Britain, and may be
comparable to the ratio in the U.S. and Costa Rica, the most dog-friendly of
nations.
Source:
Animal People
We
keep 7.5 million cats and 6.1 million dogs as pets but do we know where that
fake-looking fur trim comes from? Cruella De Ville, the sinister character
from 101 Dalmatians, stole Dalmatian puppies to kill them and use their fur to
make a coat. The book, written by Dodie Smith, was a fictional story, but today
in China over two million cats and dogs are killed each year for their fur and
for their skins. Among other things, these furs are used as linings in
boots and gloves, jackets and coats, blankets and rugs. The skins also are used
to make drums and other musical instruments.
Source: World
News, 14 February 2007
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