Behind fur there is always animals suffering.
Bred in small cages in a farm or trapped in the wild, the animals are
dying for the vanity and profit of some humans.
If the reality of the production of fur was displayed in fur-shops or
in stores, this business could not go on. Nobody wants to see how
much suffering and how much desperation is hidden behind the products
they are purchasing.
Our goal has to be trying to break the veil of secrecy that farmers
and furriers have built around their industry.
Global data from "Fur Trade Today" in 2006 are of 44,6 millions minks, 7 millions foxes, 350 millions rabbits, 3 millions raccons, 350 thousands seals, all killed during a single year for the production of pelts.
Animals killed with electrocution, in gas chambers, breaking their neck... in small cages, stressed and bored, deprived of freedom... animals trapped in the wild... This is where fur comes from.
FUR FARMS (top)
Fur farms look like concentration camps: rows upon rows of sheds,
full of cages. The animals are kept in small wire cages, where they
have just the posiibility to turn around themselves, over and over
again. The life of an imprisoned animal is boring and stressful. This
is the reason for steretyped behaviours, self mutilation and
cannibalism.
Animals are exposed to the wind and freeze, in order to stimulate the production of a thicker pelt.
Food is given them on the ceiling of the cage and the animals have to
lick it from the inside. Whene temperatures get really cold the
tongues can remain sticked to the frozen wire.
The food often contain sedatives to contol the stress of the animals,
like in many other type of farming.
Minks love water, but in fur farms they can see it only through a
pipe that brings it in the barren cage.
Minks, like all fur farm animals will never touch the ground and feel
the grass under their feet.
KILLING METHODS (top)
Killing methods in fur farms must coincide with the need of a useful
pelt: gas chambers, elctrocution, broken necks.
Sometimes the animals are stunned with sticks on their head or just
smashing their heads on the ground.
They struggle, have convulsions, but in the end they remain helpless
on the ground.
Minks are often killed with Carbon Dioxide in a gas chambre. Some
farmers have been exposed for their cheap methods of killing minks by
breaking their necks with the hands.
Foxes are electrocuted with the use of electrodes in the mouth and in
the genital area.
Shocking footage fom China showed animals being skinned alive in an open market, resulting in agonies lasting many minutes.
(top)SKINNING (top)
The animals are skinned right after being killed: a knife cuts thier
back and the skin is then torn off, like pulling out a sock.
The remains are usually thrown away and burned, while the precious
pelt will end up in tanneries where it is treated with toxic
chemicals.
In some cases the animals are skinned alive. This has been reported by undercover investigations in China, where even dogs and cats have been skinned alive in front of hidden cameras. This shocking practice happens in open markets, where the animals endure a painfully slow death and are still alive for minutes after being skinned.
(top)POLLUTION (top)
The sewage coming out of fur farms pollutes waters around the area,
like it happens with any kind of intensive animal farming.. Animal
sewage is full of ammonia, responsible for killing life in waters.
The fur industry has got also one more environmentally damaging side, which is tanning. Tanning pelts means using chemicals with polluting and carcinogenic effects. In some areas of Italy known for their fur and leather tanneries higher levels of cancer have been reported.
(top)TRAPS (top)
10-20 millions animals are still trapped in the wild every year. The
animals ending up in a leghold trap can stay there days waiting for
the trapper to come and kill them, if they didn't die for the loss of
blood.
In the meantime it is a continous and long agony for them. They will try everything to get away form the trap holding their leg, even mutilating themselves.
Moreover, a lot of the trapped animals are not useful for the trappers (sometimes even pet dogs are victims of traps) and are thus thrown away, like if they were a sort of waste.
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