How Dog And Cat Fur Is Used

Sir Robert with products made from brutally slaughtered dogs and cats bred by the million for the fur trade. In addition, stolen family pets and homeless cats and dogs are used.

“It’s time for Commissioner Byrne to stop giving excuses to the EU’s consumers and ban this cat and dog fur trade once and for all, if he wants to restore consumer confidence in what they purchase in this holiday season,” said The Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Atkins, MEP for the North West.

Sir Robert warned that without comprehensive action from the EU, “the flood of these despicable goods will turn into a tidal wave.” Sir Robert was referring to the fact that since the US banned the import of cat and dog furs and skins two years ago Asian merchants are targeting the European Union as their prime market for these goods. Russia is the other market for these items. Sir Robert and many colleagues from the European Parliament, from all parties, and various national legislators are calling for action.

The fur of cats and dogs is used in a variety of products, including coats, fur trimmed garments, hoods, hats, gloves, stuffed animals, blankets, toys, fur pom poms on sweaters and trim on jeans etc, childrens dyed hairbows and items such as novelty key rings and hair accessories.

Even life sized tigers made of dyed dog fur have been documented in Asian showrooms, these large statues are being sold to hotels and museums in Europe for £3,500 each.

Labeling

This slaughter is so unconscionable that the industry has tried to obscure the truth with purposely misleading labels. Dog and cat products are rarely labeled as such. Many companies and individuals involved in the trade of dog and cat fur use fraudulent terms and deliberate mislabeling, or use made up names of creatures that dont exist such as Sobaki and Gaewolf. Or no name at all, or dyed in bright colours to appear to be “faux fur” or dyed to appear to be fur from other species to disguise the true identity of their products. As dog and cat fur is much cheaper it is sometimes labelled as ‘fake’ fur. In fact, fur manufacturers in China will sew any label onto dog and cat garments to make them more marketable – the importer of the fur garments or items usually chooses how the product is to be labelled and presumably will do so to reflect acceptability to the customer.

Dog Fur – may be Labeled As: Gae -wolf (note: Gae is the Korean word for dog) Sobaki, Asian jackal, Gou -pee, Goupee, Kou pi, Gubi, China wolf, Asian wolf, Pommern wolf, loup d’ Asia (wolf of Asia), Asiatic raccoon dog, Corsac fox, Dogues du Chine.

Cat Fur – may be labeled As: Housecat, Wild cat, Katzenfelle, Rabbit, Goyangi, Mountain cat.

BEWARE OF FUR TRIM…

An added danger is that consumers are being fooled into believing that the fur trim on budget fashion items is fake rather than genuine. The likelihood is that it will be cat or dog because it’s cheaper to use. Also, fox fur has become so cheap that it has replaced the artificial article. Most of the fur from foxes on fur farms is not used as coats but as fur trim. This indicates partly how the fur trade has managed to survive the dramatic drop in sales of fur coats, many people are not aware that the fur collar or glove linings are made of real fur which is obtained through the same atrocious process as fur coats. Unless absolutely sure its synthetic don’t buy – see ‘test between Real or Fake Fur’ ( fur bearing animals page)

Identification can be made even more difficult once the fur is dyed and/or trimmed, making it literally undistinguishable from other furs such as mink, rabbit or fox, the fur on gloves or hoods, etc. is often not made from a single piece of fur but could contain fur from a number of animals also making it very difficult to identify.

The fur trimmed parka’s on the right were bought in Italy, DNA tests of the fur trim tested positive as dog fur.

It isn’t possible to identify many fur items as each year millions of animal fur pelts are imported into the United Kingdom, from countries all over the world, including Asia, and species specific data is recorded only for certain animals, wide ranges of pelts and fur-skin products are grouped together in one category, and British trade statistics do not separately identify cat and dog fur. Imports of such fur would be classified under the catch-all heading of “other fur”-that is, furs that are not separately classified elsewhere.

Also complicating the labeling issue even more, the Fur Products Labeling Act exempts from labeling requirements all fur products costing less than £130 – a price range into which most fur-trimmed garments and accessories fall.

Furthermore, the pressure of cost has pushed more and more of the trade to the far east where wages are lower and there is less regulation. The Hong Kong trade and development council noted that most firms in Hong Kong have moved production to the mainland because of its less stringent environmental regulations – and companies moving fur production to China, the Philippines and other east Asian countries increases even more the likelihood that more low cost cat and dog furs will be used.