Sarah J. Blige

If you buy a piece of fur clothing in Canada, chances are you’re actually sporting dog or cat hide. For those of you who think it’s perfectly okay to drape mink or fox over your shoulders, perhaps the fact that you could be wearing someone’s beloved pet and not some wild beast will put you off of pelt.

German Shepherd is all the rage in Beijing. And how 'bout a kitty accessory?

Last month The Canadian Press reported that Ottawa would not support a ban on dog and cat fur imports, simply because doing so might undermine Canada’s position on the banning of seal products to other countries.  After the EU voted overwhelmingly to ban Canadian seal imports this summer, our Conservative government threatened to appeal the ban at the World Trade Organization. Now Canadian officials believe their case could be compromised if they don’t stand in solidarity for the barbaric slaughter of helpless animals, regardless of species. Hey, we bludgeon newborn seals like there’s no tomorrow, so who are we to say you shouldn’t slaughter puppies and kitties by the truckload? Hell, we’ll even sell your dog coats and cat scarves in our stores, since we don’t have any laws here that require us to label our furs accurately. Hound is the new fox.

But where are these furs coming from? China, Thailand and the Philippines, mainly. In these countries, animal rights (not to mention human rights) laws are extremely lax, and apparently it is cheaper and easier to abduct and slaughter dogs and cats to make fur garments than it is to produce synthetic fur. Undercover footage from the Humane Society of the United States and PETA has revealed the gruesome practices at dog and cat fur factories in these Asian countries, where millions of animals — some strays, others clearly pets — are savagely beaten, strangled, bled to death and bludgeoned, all in the name of fashion. These poor animals are scooped off the streets and stuffed into tiny cages with dozens of other dogs and cats on their way to slaughter. If they make it through the transport, they can look forward to being starved, drowned, hanged with a wire noose, and likely skinned alive. Many of them still have collars on. If you think you have the stomach to see this footage for yourself, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alRW1sz_jeg.

On the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade’s website, it states approximately two million dogs and cats are killed for the fur trade every year, and further reports it takes about 24 cats or 10 to 12 dogs to make one fur coat, more if they’re using puppies or kitties. These fur factories often dye and mislabel dog and cat furs to pass them off as the pelts of other species.

The existence of dog and cat fur factories is utterly appalling, but so is the existence of the fur trade itself. It should not be acceptable to kill any animal for its fur, wild or not. Every year, 40 million animals are brutally murdered for the fur on their backs. They are either caught in barbaric leg-hold traps, suffering unimaginable pain and tormented by panic until the trapper finally arrives to put them out of their misery, or worse yet, raised on factory farms, where they go mad anxiously awaiting their demise, often mutilating themselves or others in a futile attempt to escape the torture.

What can you do? Refuse to support the fur trade. The only surefire way to ensure you aren’t purchasing dog or cat fur is to avoid anything resembling fur entirely. Even fur that appears fake could be real. To find out more about dog and cat fur factories (as well as other fur trade-related facts), visit http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=56. For more information on what you can do to help stop the sale of fur, go to http://www.furisdead.com/getActive.asp and The Fur-Bearer Defenders website.

COMPASSION IS IN FASHION; FUR IS DEAD.