Blonde By Nature

A continuation from Do We Not Bleed? A Look At China’s Treatment of Animals and Cruelty Inc.

(Designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, noted as a “Fuck You” Fashion Show to Peta)

The Fur Council of Canada is fighting back against the perception that wearing fur is bad. November of last year they launched a multi-million dollar campaign missioned to convince people that wearing fur is “eco-friendly.” Their arguments summarized:

• The fur industry is very regulated in Canada, no endangered species are ever used
• Fur is durable, renewable, biodegradable, recyclable, earth-friendly and supports trappers who protect the environment
• Synthetic furs are made with non-renewable sources
• It takes 4 litres of petroleum to make synthetic coats

The hippy point-of-view argues…

• It takes 40 times the energy to raise and farm the animals than it does to make synthetics
• The waste produced from the over crowded, stressed out animal farms poisons waterways
• Chromium and formaldehyde are used in the tanning process which obviously are not eco-friendly
• Many other unfriendly chemicals are used to keep the fur from decomposing
• “Trash Kills” - 30 percent of the fur sold in the U.S. comes from animals trapped in the wild, which includes any poor animal who stumbles upon the traps (dogs, cats, endangered animals, etc)
• Traps are inhumane and often leave animals struggling for weeks at a time (check out World Animal Net to see which countries have banned the leg hold traps…Canada is not on that list)
• The government laws are not strong or defined enough and humane animal farming is difficult to regulate
• The biggest argument against the use of fur is that is cruel to animals and unnecessary

While North Americans are duking-out the fur industry and what it means to be green, on the other side of the world, “China supplies more than half of the finished fur garments imported for sale in the United States.” Since the fur trade is global, tags and tracking the origins of the fur is extremely difficult but it is believed that furs claiming to be from Europe can be traced back to Chinese farms (one of the largest fur exporters in the world), despite their labeling. Mislabeling of fur-type is also done purposely knowing that North Americans favour cats and dogs as pets and can get higher prices claiming the fur as something else.

According to World Animal, it takes 70 minks to make a mink coat, an average of 300 squirrels to make a squirrel coat and roughly 20 dogs to make a dog coat.

China, one of the largest fur exporters in the world, has no laws against the inhumane treatment of animals and slaughtering methods for the fur trade (similar to the animal food industry). We are talking about a whole additional group of animals raised on farms in cramped cages, amongst disease and horrid conditions until the day comes they are tortured or skinned before death; mink, fox, raccoon dog, chinchilla, dog, cat, lynx and rex rabbit. An estimated 70% of exported fur from China comes from farms.

Take that in for a moment…that is millions of animals annually.

Care For The Wild has done extensive research on the topic and published Fun Fur?: A Report on The Chinese Fur Industry containing very detailed accounts of the fur industry using reputable sources - it is definitely worth a read. Other great sources on this issue: Infurmation, Asian Animal Protection Network, and Voice For Dogs. For alternatives to leather and fur check out Vegan Essentials, Vegan Outfitters and EBlood Clothing to name a few.

Final Point. Interestingly enough Miss Universe Japan 2007 Riyo Mori was recently deeply criticized for wearing fur, in contrast to Miss UK 2005 Brooke Johnston who was a strong spokesperson for Peta. Nuff said.

The next article will show another example of the Chinese treatment of agricultural products/animals.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites