Fur

Wearing fur was once a fashion statement. Nowadays, an increasing number of designers are choosing not to use fur in their garments as a statement that they are against animal cruelty.  An average of 40 animals is required to make one fur coat. Whether the animal is trapped in the wild, bludgeoned on an ice floe, or bred on a factory farm, fur represents death and suffering

Fur Farms

Eighty-five percent of the fur industry’s skins come from animals raised in Fur farms. Approximately 30 million animals are raised in cages and killed worldwide for fur every year. Minks are the animals most commonly raised on fur farms, but foxes, chinchillas, rabbits, dogs and other animals are also victims. Animals raised on fur farms live in intense confinement, and suffer psychologically. Neurotic behaviors include pacing, circling, self-mutilation, and throwing themselves against the sides of their wire cages.
Methods of killing on fur farms include breaking the animal’s neck, gassing, lethal injection, genital electrocution and anal electrocution. A large proportion of fur used on lower cost items is from rabbits. China is the world’s largest producer of rabbits and, with no animal welfare laws. 

Fur Trapping

“Approximately 10 million animals are trapped and killed worldwide each year for fur. Animals caught in traps suffer immensely while waiting for the trapper to come and kill them. In the U.S., trappers are licensed by state agencies, just as hunters are. Beavers, raccoons, opossums, muskrats, skunks, and foxes are among the animals targeted by trappers … Once the trapper finds the captured animal, if the animal is still alive, the trapper will usually club or stomp the animal to death as shooting would risk damaging the pelt … For every intended victim of the traps, there are 2 to 10 unintended victims: birds, porcupines, deer, cats, dogs and other animals are caught, maimed and killed in traps.”

About.com Animal Rights

Seal Fur and Seal Products

Each year hundreds of thousands of baby harp seals are clubbed to death. The quota set by The Canadian government for 2013 was 400,000.  (See previous year’s quota’s here). In the United States, the importation and sale of seal fur and other seal products are prohibited under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. In 2009, the European Union banned the commercial importation of seal products.

The slaughter of seals is incredibly cruel (a post mortem survey has shown that 42% of these babies are skinned alive)
It is a threat to the survival of the species. It is a threat to the survival of cod. It is a slaughter done mainly for unessential, vanity, and luxury items, and therefore, is unnecessary. It is unethical to slaughter newborn seal pups (About 95% of the seals to be slaughtered are babies less than four weeks old).  [from The Sea Shepard on Seals].

What you can do:

 

Dog and Cat Fur

Around 2 million dogs and cats are bred or taken from the street and killed in China each year for their fur. Australia, like the EU and US, has banned the import of dog and cat fur … but international investigations have show that Chinese dog and cat fur is frequently mislabelled as for example fox, rabbit or mink fur.” 

Animals Australia