Cat-skinning in Switzerland

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

 

 

Cat-skinning in Switzerland

 

GENEVA--How many cats are skinned for fur in Switzerland?

Probably not nearly as many as the thousands or even tens of

thousands recently alleged to media by Tomi Tomek, founder of the

Swiss group SOS Chats, and Patricia Dolciani, president of the

French Society for the Protection of Animals in Thonon-les-Bains,

near the Swiss border--but enough to shock Europe as the trade comes

to light.

" As far as we are aware, only a couple of dozen cat furs are

produced annually in Switzerland, " Swiss Federal Veterinary Office

spokesperson Marcel Falk told Tony Paterson of the London Independent

in April 2008.

The agency " has asked the country's tanners about production

levels and concludes that the output is minimal, " Paterson reported.

But Paterson confirmed that some cats are skinned in

Switzerland. At the Ark Farm in Huttwil, where a store caters to

craft artists, Paterson found a " pile of cat pelts lying on a

table...on sale with sheepskins, whole calf skins, and fox pelts

for five Swiss francs each, " worth about $5.00 U.S.

" A salesman insisted the cat skins had been brought in by an

old woman 'who did not know what to do with them,' " Paterson

reported. " Picking out a grey striped, professionally tanned and

perfumed cat pelt from a pile, he stressed, 'These skins come from

cats who were run over,' " unlikely because pelts from any animal who

has been hit by a car tend to be damaged beyond use.

Recalled Paterson, " Late last year, an elderly woman at a

Huttwil tanners shop was interviewed by French television and not

only admitted that cats were skinned for their pelts, but added it

was also quite normal to eat what was left over. The traditional

recipe on farms in the region, she said, involved cooking the cat

with sprigs of thyme. Television crews conducted investigations, "

Paterson wrote, " using hidden cameras that exposed the cat fur

trade. Tanners who denied involvement were caught in the act. "

Paterson investigated the Swiss cat fur trade six months

after Adam Sage of the London Times. " The cat fur trade is small,

not very lucrative, and I really can't see why traffickers would get

involved--I sell ten blankets a year, " shopkeeper Sylvaine Ghielmini

of Yvonand told Sage.

The shocker for many Swiss is not the size of the cat fur

industry, but that it exists at all. Several Swiss animal welfare

foundations fund aggressive campaigns against Chinese and eastern

European commerce in cat and dog pelts, and against eating cats and

dogs.

" Switzerland banned all cat fur imports in 2006, " noted

Paterson, " because of concern about the allegedly cruel methods that

were used by the exporting countries to slaughter the animals. But

at the end of 2008 a ban on the production of cat fur will come into

force throughout the European Union, while Switzerland, a non-E.U.

member, will be unaffected. "

Christian Democrat party president Christophe Darbellay and

Luc Barthassat, a member of the Swiss parliament, told Paterson

that they expect to pass legislation banning cat pelt sales by

midsummer 2008.

The Swiss cat pelt trade was exposed a decade after a dog

meat farm near Datung, China announced that it had begun breeding

imported St. Bernards. Switzerland became a hub of opposition to

eating dogs--but Swiss activists were embarrassed in 2002 by a

tabloid allegation that some Swiss farmers in remote areas eat

puppies.

The unverified story circulated on the Internet for nearly three years.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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