It’s Time to Destroy the Chinese Fur Industry!

Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 1:03 PM

Subject: It’s Time to Destroy the Chinese Fur Industry!

Dear Sarah Agathe,

Right now, millions of vulnerable animals await a painful death in cramped, filthy cages on fur farms throughout China. Workers might choose to kill the animals by strangling them with wire nooses, cutting their throats or even crushing the animals’ skulls by stamping on them with their heavy boots.

The animals’ skin is then ripped from their broken and abused bodies in order to be turned into fur-trimmed hats, jackets, gloves and other items that you will find in department stores in the UK this autumn.

For the Chinese fur industry (one of the world’s largest suppliers of animal fur), this isn’t just about fur coats. Inexpensive fur products such as trinkets, glove linings, fur trim – even cat toys made of fur – have been creeping into shops here too. You can help us protect animals and support PETA’s unique and vital work to end animal abuse by making a special gift today.

Often, otherwise compassionate consumers unwittingly lend support to the suffering of animals on fur farms. That support might come in the form of a toy purchased for a cat at a pet shop – a toy made from the skin of another cat who was stolen, stuffed into a crate, loaded onto a truck with thousands of other cats, forced to endure days of suffering during transport to a slaughterhouse in northern China and finally beaten and skinned. But the label won’t tell you that.

Or consider those little fur tassels on a pair of gloves. Those might be made from the fur of a German shepherd or a chow chow, who was once loved and cherished – and then was one day kidnapped and sold at the local animal market. After repeated beatings and days without water or food, the dog was painfully killed and skinned. Did the label mention that?

The fur industry is so desperate to push its cruel wares that it has even stooped to lying to unsuspecting consumers, intentionally mislabelling fur garments as fake – or as coming from rabbits or other animals when they actually came from cats and dogs. The fact is that it takes expensive DNA tests to prove what kind of animal was killed to make each piece of fur trim, coat collar, glove lining, cat toy or furry trinket. So as you can imagine, these tests are rarely done – if ever.

PETA and our affiliates are leading the fight against the fur trade – both in China and worldwide – and we’re making significant progress. Following on from PETA affiliates’ thought-provoking campaigns and groundbreaking undercover investigations, major designers and retailers such as Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Liz Claiborne Inc, Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger are swearing off the use of fur in their collections, and PETA UK is working hard to convince designers, retailers and consumers to turn away from fur. But none of what we do is possible without your support.

That’s why I hope you will make a generous donation today to support our ongoing work to save animals.

Together, we can help the dogs, cats, rabbits and countless other individual animals who are suffering around the world.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E Newkirk
Founder

PS Even as more and more consumers reject fur, a desperate fur industry is trying to make a comeback by pushing its bloody trade through cat toys, fur trim and other products whose manufacture resulted in same kind of suffering that goes into every fur coat. Please support PETA’s lifesaving work today.

Images courtesy of © PETA/Manfred Karremann

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