China is the largest exporter of fur in the world, yet has no animal welfare laws in place. This means that animals are not protected by law and can legally and publicly be abused and tortured.
According to the Winnipeg Humane Society, most of the animals are killed by being strung up by their hind legs or neck with a thin metal wire. A worker then stabs them in the groin or stomach and waits for them to bleed to death. Some farms or factories will bludgeon animals to death, suffocate them or use a hose to pour water down their throats until they drown. More often than not, other tightly confined animals are forced to watch and wait.
The Star recently sent a reporter to China, and here’s what he witnessed:
On every third day of the lunar month Shangcun doubles in size — expanding into an enormous open-air marketplace where vans park in long rows from 6 a.m. till noon and small vendors sell furs, mostly to Chinese manufacturers.
In one corner of the market animals are killed. Women snatch the live animals by their back legs then smash their heads on the hard ground, or strike them over the head with a bamboo pole. The animals are stripped of their fur, which is stretched over wide wooden paddles.
Much of the fur for sale in China comes from dogs and cats. Animal rights activists say some of the fur comes from stolen pets, animals gathered and transported cruelly and then slaughtered inhumanely.
Again, from The Star:
Garments made from dog and cat fur are sold in markets and stores, as well as on China’s version of eBay, called taobao.com — often as jackets or vests but also as fashion accessories, trinkets and trims, even as cat-fur car seat upholstery and dog-pelt mattress covers.
Mona Lung, a Beijing-based project officer for the animal rights group ACTAsia, estimates two million cats and dogs are slaughtered each year in China.
Once the flesh has been removed, cat and dog pelts are stitched together into large, uniform sheets of fur. They are separated by colour, pattern, texture and the length of the fur. Sometimes they are sheared or dyed to make them more fashionable.
Two million cats and dogs slaughtered annually is tragic enough, but it also turns out that 60 per cent of all fur garments that enter Canada come from China, trade worth about $12 million annually. Unlike the U.S., the E.U., and Australia, which have laws that ban importing cat and dog fur, Canada has no restrictions on fur imports, except for endangered species.
Lesley Fox, spokeswoman for the Vancouver-based Association for the Protection of Fur Bearing Animals, wants Canada to bring its laws in line with the United States, which requires all fur be labeled.
Several Canadian politicians have presented bills aimed at banning dog and cat fur but so far, the Canadian government has declined to change the current legislation. This could be because Canada has an unholy alliance with China: China is the last major buyer of Canadian seal, while in exchange Canada takes all that dog and cat fur. by Judy Molland
This would not be happening if China had stringent animal protection laws. If you agree that China needs to introduce an animal protection law, please click here to sign our petition.
And thank you.
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