The Ugly Truth About the Fur Industry, Fur Farms and Fur Trapping

The Ugly Truth About the Fur Industry, Fur Farms and Fur Trapping

The cruelty of the fur industry causes unimaginable suffering and pain to animals. Today, with so many different options for warm and fashionable fabrics, the fur industry has become an unnecessary and archaic industry.

Today, some 75,000,000 animals including fox, mink, lynx, rabbit, chinchilla, and raccoon dog are cruelly raised and brutally killed every year by electrocution, having their necks broken, are crushed, drowned in traps, are gassed or poisoned, or in the worst cases are skinned alive—all to keep their pelts intact for the apparel and fur industry. This is all done in the name of fashion and for an industry that makes billions of dollars off cruelty. Don’t support cruel fashion that causes horrific suffering to animals in order to make a personal fashion statement. Only animals should wear fur.

Fur Farms

Most of the fur industry’s animal skins come from animals forcibly confined and crowded inside small wire cages stacked on top of each other, on fur farms. These animals live in deep fear, distress, physical suffering with disease, hunger, sickness, and injuries; have parasites; eat poor quality food that barely keeps them alive; and endure numerous physical hardships. Animals raised on fur farms receive no protection from humane animal welfare laws or humane slaughter laws, and they experience some of the most horrific living conditions including being packed into crowded cages where they cannot move; live on top of each other in cages; are exposed to scorching heat and freezing temperatures and harsh weather conditions; experience anxiety-induced psychosis from crowding; receive no veterinary care or medical treatment; live with and endure physical injuries and wounds; and live entire lives of complete misery. Some animals are so stressed by their crowded conditions that they cannibalize each other. They are then killed in a number of brutal, agonizing ways including electrocution, being poisoned, having their necks broken, are gassed, or in the worst cases, are skinned alive.

The fur farming industry is mainly located in Europe, China, Russia, Argentina and the United States. Animals raised on fur farms include rabbit, fox, lynx, mink, chinchilla, and raccoon dog (mainly raised in China). Raccoon dogs raised on Chinese fur farms are sold under deceptive advertising and marketing labels identified as faux fur or labeled as another type of animal. China has also been found to raise cats as well for fur, and because cats and dogs are deceptively mislabeled for fur to retailers, domestic cats and dogs in China are often stolen from their owners or kidnapped from the streets and sold to the fur markets. For a better understanding of animals raised for fur, see this 60-second video by PETA for an inside look.

Fur Trapping

Millions of animals are brutally trapped and killed every year for the clothing/apparel industry, including coyotes, wolves, raccoons, bobcats, opossums, nutria, beavers, otters, and other fur-bearing animals. The traps used cause the animals to suffer lingering and often slow painful deaths where the animal is suffering for hours and days. The most widely used trap is also the most inhumane and painful, called the steel-jaw trap. These traps are so inhumane that they have been banned in the EU and in some states in the U.S. In an attempt to try to escape, the animal will try to bite off their limb to leave the trap. Sometimes predators will get to the animals before the trappers, leaving the trapped animal helpless to defend themselves. To keep the animal’s fur intact, trappers kill the animals very inhumanely often crushing them, beating them, or strangling them to death.

In addition, the bi-product of trapping means that many other innocent animals are unintentionally caught in the traps  including domestic dogs, cats, other wildlife and even endangered species. Many states in the U.S. have no regulations requiring trappers to visit their traps within a certain period of time to prevent prolonged suffering, so some animals can suffer and starve in traps for days and up to a week before they are killed.

Deceptive Fur Labeling

The apparel and retail industry have deceived customers for years by selling animal fur-trimmed garments labeled as “faux fur” or raccoon or coyote fur, when it is animal fur from domestic “raccoon dog or cat,” rabbit or some other species. If you think you have purchased or have seen faux fur apparel in a retail store that is falsely advertised and labeled, you can report it to the Humane Society of the United States here.

Environmental Impact of Fur

The energy required to produce a fur coat made from an animal on a fur farm as opposed to a faux or fake fur coat requires 20 times the amount of energy to produce and manufacture. All animal fur is chemically treated to keep the skin intact, so it is not biodegradable. The process of chemically treating fur produces highly toxic chemical pollution that goes into the air and waterways and contaminates local and regional water supplies.

Fur farm animals produce tons of manure daily and annually, which also contaminates water systems and the environment.

What You Can Do

1. Do not patronize any retail store that sells fur.
2. Refuse to buy any fur at all including fur-trimmed clothing.
3. Let retail store owners know how you feel about animal fur, and ask them to stop selling fur and instead sell only faux fur.
4. Write letters to the editors of fashion magazines that feature fur in ads or on models, and explain how the industry is causing widespread suffering and pain for animals, and ask them not to support featuring animal fur in their magazines.
5. If you think you have purchased or have seen apparel in a retail store that is falsely advertised and misrepresented, you can report it to the Humane Society of the United States here.
6. See this 60-second video for an inside look at the fur industry.

Here is a list of fur-free retail stores, manufactures and brands from the Humane Society of the United States.

Watch Films About the Fur Trade

See Skin Trade

See Cry of the Innocent: The Voices That Can’t Speak

How To Tell the Difference Between Real and Fake Fur

Facts About Fur – From Animal Rescue Crusade

• More than 50 million animals are violently killed for use in fashion every year.
• Methods used to kill animals for their fur include gassing, electrocution, and neck breaking, and many are skinned alive.
• Animals are still alive and struggling desperately when workers flip them onto their backs or hang them up by their legs or tails to skin them.
• Workers stomp on the necks and heads of animals who struggle too hard.
• Foxes, minks, rabbits, raccoon-dogs (China) and other animals pace and shiver in outdoor above-ground hard wire cages, exposed to rain, freezing cold nights or the scorching sun.
• Mother animals are stressed and driven crazy from rough handling and intense confinement. They have nowhere to hide while giving birth and often kill their babies after delivering litters.
• Fur comes from animals who are factory-farmed or trapped purely for fashion.
• Millions of animals are killed simply to provide trimming effects for fashion, often termed in marketing “Faux Fur,” but often it’s real fur from dogs and cats in China.
• Purchasing the tiniest bit of fur trim supports the cruel fur industry.
• Currently, there are no federal laws providing protection for the millions of animals held in these factory-like farms.
• Baby seals are clubbed and brutally slain for their fur. The Canadian seal hunt is the world’s largest remaining commercial slaughters.

See Who Is and Isn’t Selling Fur Today

See our list of fashion designers who have gone fur-free

See our list of fur-free retailers in the U.S.

See our list of fur-free retailers outside of the U.S.

See our list of cities and countries that have banned fur farming and fur sales

Read More About the Fur Trade

The Fur Trade

5 Fur Facts The Will Break Your Heart

Nine Shocking Fur Facts

Fur Trade Facts

The Fur Industry, Animals Used For Clothing

Here are the Innocent Faces of the Cruel Fur Trade

China’s Shocking Dog and Cat Fur Trade

A Shocking Look Inside Chinese Fur Farms

Fur Farms Are Still Unfashionably Cruel

Calls for Harvey Nichols to stop selling fur as film reveals horror

The Grisly Truth Behind Billionaires’ Wardrobes: Documentary exposes how caged animals are slaughtered to create luxurious coats worth €1million

 

Credits

Photo Credit: pedersore_toukokuu via photopin.c

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