If you are vegan or just generally involved in animal rights issues, you may already know that a great deal of labeled faux fur is actually dog fur–domestic or raccoon dog. However, there are many people out there that are completely unaware that they may in fact be purchasing REAL fur. I personally do not like the appearance of faux fur because it reminds me too much of REAL fur and the atrocities that come along with it. I pretty much ban anything that is faux animal material…..I just can’t help but feel it in some way supports the actual industry behind the torture of real animals. Put it this way: people see you in your faux fur coat and faux snake bag–do they necessarily know its faux? No, therefore you are both supporting the use of the REAL thing and making it seem all fine and dandy by doing so. Also, you never know–a PETA campaigner may come up and spray paint you accidentally!! (I in no way am denouncing the spray painting, more power to PETA!)
Back to the subject at hand: faux fur that is dog fur. In 2007 the Humane Society purchased 25 coats that were said to be coats containing faux fur (mostly around the collars of the coats). They tested each of the coats and 24 of 25 coats were in fact REAL fur, mostly from the raccoon dog native to Asia. The companies claimed that the “asiatic raccoon” aka the raccoon dog, is legal to import into the USA. However, what does legal have to do with it? These coats were labeled FAUX FUR!! People who purposely buy faux fur products do not wish to have an animal tortured for their fashion statements, whether it be LEGAL or not!!! The majority of coats tested turn out to be from the raccoon dog but there was also fur from coyotes and domestic dogs.
Look how freakin adorable the raccoon dogs are! How could you let them suffer?
The majority of real fur and fake fur garments coming into the USA is from China. China does not have animal laws in place to protect domestic dogs and cats, and they especially do not have laws in place to protect raccoon dogs, coyotes, raccoons etc etc. Therefore, these poor creatures are more often than not, kept in small crowded cages with sick and deceased animals. This is how they spend the rest of their lives before they are taken off to be skinned alive. These are atrocities that we should not allow to happen!! There is absolutely no reason animals should be tortured and skinned alive for FASHION!!! Nonetheless FAUX FASHION! Its absurd!!
I hope that some of you reading this did not know about this and are now as outraged as I am. Whether you knew about these atrocities already or not, PLEASE let others know too!! I remember having a conversation with my boyfriend’s niece, she had just received a faux fur collared jacket for Christmas. She is an animal lover and I felt the need to advise her that her coat may in fact be REAL dog fur. She was horrified. Part of me felt bad for ruining one of her favorite gifts from Christmas but I felt the knowledge I left her with was much more important. I hope that the knowledge leaves her second guessing the next time she is looking at faux-anything! Know what you are buying and if you are not sure, don’t buy it or do some major research! Is having a “faux” collar important enough for an animal to be skinned alive for? Nothing is important enough for that!
For more information on mislabeled faux fur and the fur trade in general, visit these sites:
http://www.furisdead.com/feat-dogcatfur.asp
http://www.peta.org/feat/ChineseFurFarms/index.asp
