Dog and cat fur (Part 1) - Please spread the word!! Crosspost to everyone!

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Investigators visited one dog farm several hours north of the city of

Harbin. They documented live dogs in an unheated room in the bitter

cold, surrounded by the bodies of dead dogs hanging from hooks. Some of

the live dogs were destined to be sold and eaten in Harbin, their fur

sold to the fur trade. The dogs were packed into sacks and transported

by motor vehicle to a slaughterhouse—a journey of several hours.

At one restaurant the dog was taken out of the sack. He was wagging his

tail . . . videotape shows a German shepherd dog blinking his eye as he

was being skinned —Information from Investigator's Report

In Harbin investigators witnessed dogs kept in a dark, unheated building

in the cold of February without food or water. They were tethered by

thin metal wires. Investigators were told that the butcher at this place

kills 10 to 12 dogs a day, selling their flesh and fur, and that his

wife often transports the dogs from the breeding farms in the north.

A German shepherd in Harbin (China) is tethered by a wire noose, then

stabbed in the groin, his lifeblood pouring onto the snow. When the

skinning begins, dogs like this may still be alive and conscious. Their

flesh is served in restaurants; their fur sold to the global fur trade.

For some of the dogs brought to Harbin, the journey wasn't over.

Because some restaurants (most often Korean) want really fresh meat,

some of these hapless dogs were once again put into sacks, then taken to

their final destination. At one restaurant the investigator watched as a

dog was taken out of a sack. The others were left in the sack on the icy

ground. (As each dog was taken out and killed, the others could hear its

screams and cries.) According to the investigator, the first dog he saw

reacted as any dog would as he was taken out into the light—he

showed his trust by wagging his tail. The wagging stopped when the

butcher tied the dog up short with a metal wire so the dog could hardly

move. The dog began to panic and tried to escape. But the butcher lifted

the dog's left hind leg and stabbed him in the groin area. Blood

began to pour. The dog howled in pain and struggled more. With every

move, the wire cut into the dog's neck. After a couple of minutes,

the butcher began to skin the dog.

AT A FUR MARKET in a town some 300 miles north of Jinan, investigators

saw fox, rabbit, and other kinds of fur, including, by their estimate,

thousands of dog and cat furs, offered in shops around the market.

As horrifying as this scene was, it got worse. An investigator reported

that he saw dogs being butchered who were still conscious as the

skinning began, and investigators videotaped a German shepherd blinking

his eye as he was being skinned.

In China investigators saw some dogs killed for their fur who appeared

to be thick-coated mixed breeds, perhaps chow chow mixes. But most of

the dogs bred and killed for the fur trade are German shepherds, the

same courageous and noble breed that leads the blind, rescues the

victims of disasters, and patrols our streets in partnership with police

officers all across America.

INVESTIGATORS were told by a middleman in the Chinese fur trade that any

label could be put in any garment or fur product, depending on the

preference of the buyer—in other words, the company supplying the

fur was perfectly willing to label dog or cat fur as being fur from some

other species, a species presumably more acceptable to consumers.

Information from Investigator's Report Cats fare no better than dogs

in China. At a thriving fur market 300 miles to the north of the city of

Jinan, in the province of Hebei, investigators located cat breeding

farms and a factory that processes cats into furs. According to people

at the fur market and the factory, the cats are killed by hanging. Or

they may be hung from a wire while water is poured down their throats

through a hose until they drown. Then a slit is made in the cat's

stomach, the skin is opened, and the fur is pulled over the cat's

head. The furriers say that the cats may still be alive while they are

being skinned. What's important to the skinners is that the

cat's skin is preserved as much as possible in one piece to optimize

its usefulness.

 

 

Death by the Numbers

* One Chinese company told investigators that it had 50,000 cat skins

and 50,000 dog skins in stock. * At one German auction alone, 10,000

Korean dog fur pelts were available. * One shipment from a Chinese

company to the Czech Republic, reportedly for the Czech army, contained

5,329 kilograms (11,924 pounds) of " house cat skin jackets + plates, "

representing the slaughter of 40,000 to 55,000 cats. * One Chinese

fur factory told investigators that it had 100,000 cat skins stored in

its factory. * Documents detailing the export of " house cat skin

jackets and plates " from a Beijing company to a company in the Czech

Republic indicate that the number of cats killed for just one shipment

totaled 40,000 to 55,000, possibly more (calculation based on total

weight of the pelts). * One shipment from China to Italy was seized

for lack of proper permits. It contained 4.7 tons of dog hides.

 

Factory workers sort cat furs by color. Investigators were told that

more than 100,000 cat furs were in storage at that one factory alone.

Ironically, long-haired cats are kept as pets in China. Short-haired

cats, especially gray cats and orange tabby cats, are kept outside,

generally tethered by wire, and raised for their pelts. Estimates are

that about a half million cats are killed each season, from October to

February.

 

The European Connection

Although the same countries that kill cats and dogs for their fur

produce finished garments, the success of the fur trade depends on

exporting pelts to other countries. Investigators found evidence of the

use and sale of dog and cat fur in Germany, Italy, and France. And from

those countries, fur products are distributed worldwide.

Germany

Reports in the European press pointed to significant imports of cat and

dog fur into Germany. Investigators contacted exporters, manufacturers,

and auction authorities in an attempt to track the use of dog and cat

fur; they found that dog fur, known in Germany as gae-wolf, is widely

available as jackets and coats, particularly at the lower end of the

German fur market. It isn't clear, however, whether consumers

understand that gae-wolf means " domestic dog. "

GAE-WOLF IS A POPULAR FUR for jackets and coats in Germany. But how many

Germans know that gae-wolf is actually dog fur, in all likelihood

imported from Korea or China where dogs are bred and slaughtered under

the cruelest conditions? How many Germans know that the fur they're

wearing is most often that of their own revered breed, the German

shepherd. Investigators found gae-wolf garments for sale over the

Internet on a German Web site. They also learned that at just one sale

in April 1997, a German fur auction house offered 10,000 dressed Korean

gae-wolf furs. According to auction authorities, the fur was from dogs

killed the previous November and December. Most of the dog furs sold at

the auction were purchased by a Belgian furrier. Proving the point once

again that dog and cat fur is just part of the global fur industry,

investigators noted that other furs available at the same auction were

fox (110,000), mink (85,000), and an assortment that included muskrat,

bobcat, badger, and nutria. Auction house employees said some of their

customers come from the United States, though most are from Great

Britain, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

A GERMAN IMPORTER told investigators that export of dog and cat fur

goods to the United States is not a problem, explaining, " It is just a

question of the declaration [what the product is called]. " This is

another testament to the apparently common practice of mislabeling

products to disguise the use of dog and cat fur. Investigators also met

with the owner of one German company prominent in the cat fur trade. The

company obtains cat furs from China and has cat fur garments

manufactured in Greece. The owner estimated that at least half a million

cat pelts change hands each year in the international fur trade. The

company used cat fur and skin for gloves, waistcoats, foot muffs, and a

variety of products for the treatment of rheumatism, including bandages

and bedwarmers.

 

Italy

For years Italy has imported dog furs and skins from China and elsewhere

for the manufacture of fur linings and insoles for shoes and boots, as

well as other products. In the early 1990s, one Italy-based ski

equipment company, Tecnica S.p.A., gained notoriety for using

China-exported dog fur in boot linings. These boots were sold in the

United States. At least one other Italian leather-good manufacturer was

identified by investigators as importing dog pelts from China.