How You Can Help Stop the Fur Trade

1. Shop with compassion. Always choose garments and accessories free of fur and fur trim.

2. Sign up for free alerts. Contact the FFA member organization in your country to sign up for email updates and find out about anti-fur events in your area.

3. Educate fur wearers. If you see someone wearing fur, whether it is a full-length coat or trim on the cuffs or hood, talk to them about the cruelty of fur, or hand them a brochure or card. If you are in North America, you can order Fur-Free Campaign Materials free of charge from The HSUS website. For all other areas, contact the FFA member organization in your country.

4. Write to department stores that sell real fur and tell them that you prefer to shop at stores that do not contribute to animal cruelty. Email us to find out which stores in your nation sell real animal fur.

5. Hand out leaflets for an hour. Good locations include in front of department stores that sell fur, the opera, the theatre, and other places where fur wearers gather. If you are in North America, you can order Fur-Free Campaign Materials free of charge from The HSUS website. For all other areas, contact the FFA member organization in your country.

6. Write a letter to decision makers. If your nation, state, province, county, or city has pending legislation dealing with trapping, fur farming, or any other aspect of the fur industry, write to your decision-makers and tell them you support protecting animals from the fur trade.

If you are a U.S. citizen, you can learn about the current status of fur-related legislation by going to The HSUS Government Affairs website. Here you can click on your state to find out about the situation of any animal-related state legislation, including trapping and other fur-related bills.

7. Write a letter to the editor. The letters to the editor section is one of the most commonly read sections of newspapers and magazines, so it's a great way to reach a very large audience. Letters to the editor are widely read by community leaders and lawmakers trying to judge public sentiment. You can use such letters to challenge information or views about fur not accurately addressed in a news article or editorial.

When sending a letter, remember to provide your full name, address, and daytime phone number; keep it short and focused on only one subject; and refrain from openly attacking the paper, writer (if responding to an article or previous letter), or other readers. You'll have the best chance of getting your letter published if you send your letter within one or two days after the original story was published.

8. Wear an anti-fur shirt, necklace, or button, and put a bumpersticker on your car.

9. Show videos to your friends and relatives. A good choice is The Witness.

10. Donate to the member organizations of the Fur Free Alliance and help support our anti-fur campaigns. Visit the Member Info page to find the FFA affiliate in your nation.

Fur Statistics

Each year the fur industry kills over 50 million animals for fashion, not including rabbits (no reliable data on rabbits killed worldwide for fur is available).

Number of Animals to Make a Fur Coat:

12-15 lynx

10-15 wolves or coyotes

15-20 foxes

60-80 minks

27-30 racoons

10-12 beavers

60-100 squirrels

Fur Factory Farms

More than 45 million animals worldwide, including raccoon dogs, rabbits, foxes, mink, and chinchillas, are raised in cages and killed each year for their fur. Not only are cage-raised animals killed inhumanely, but they suffer from numerous physical and behavioral abnormalities induced by the stress of caging conditions. After spending their short lives in squalid conditions, animals raised on fur farms are killed by cruel methods that preserve the pelt, such as gassing, neck-breaking and anal electrocution.

Further information:

Caged Fur: The Inside Story
Respect for Animals: Fur Factory Farming
Trapping
Millions of wild animals, including bobcats, coyotes, foxes, lynx, raccoons, and wolves, suffer and die in traps each year. Countless dogs and cats, deer, birds and other animals—including threatened and endangered animals—are also injured and killed each year by the indiscriminate traps. Traps, including steel-jaw leghold traps, body-gripping traps, and wire neck snares, are inhumane devices that inflict great pain and suffering. Both the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Animal Hospital Association have declared the steel-jaw leghold trap to be inhumane.

Further Information:

Animal Protection Institute
Get The Facts - The Truth About Trapping
Fact Sheet: Trapping on National Wildlife Refuges

Even companion animals like dogs and cats are at risk of severe injury and death in traps and snares. A sampling of HSUS case history reports reveals just how traumatic the experience can be, both for pets and their owners.

Cat and Dog Fur
A 1998 investigation by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) exposed the international fur industry'..'s annual commercial seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet. Over 300,000 harp and hooded seals are killed for their pelts each year, with many skinned alive, according to independent veterinary reports. The last time this many seals were killed—in the 1950s and 1960s—the harp seal population was reduced by as much as two-thirds. In 2005, 98.5% of the seals killed were just two months of age or younger. At the time of slaughter, many had not yet eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim. They literally had no escape from the "hunters."

Further Information:
www.protectseals.org
www.boycott-canada.com
www.stopthesealhunt.ca
Newborn and Fetal Karakul Lambs
Garments made from the pelts of newborn karakul lambs—often referred to as "Persian lamb," "karakul," and "astrakhan,"—are a staple of the fur fashion world. So too are garments made of fetal karakul lambs (known as "broadtail"), which the fur industry claims are crafted from animals born prematurely due to accident or exposure. In March 2000, investigators with The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) toured a karakul sheep farm near Bukhara, in the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, and found that pregnant ewes are in fact routinely slaughtered for these fetal pelts. Graphic videotape shot at the farm shows a pregnant ewe held down, her throat slit and her stomach slashed wide so that a worker could remove the developing fetus—the "raw material" for coats, vests, and other broadtail fashions. What's more, contrary to the industry's claims that karakul lamb fur is merely a byproduct of meat production, HSUS investigators videotaped newborn lambs displayed as "samples" of pelt colors before being sent to their death. The pelts were saved, the tiny carcasses discarded as trash.

Further Information:
See the video or read the report on The Humane Society of the United States' investigation into karakul lamb fur production
Fur Trim
The fur industry is working on a whole new line. No longer limited to full-length mink coats or fox-fur jackets, fur trim is the rage. From suit collars to glove linings, fur trim is being used as an accessory for many fashion items. Fur-trimmed items currently are a half billion-dollar industry. Fur trim is a frivolous luxury responsible for the deaths of millions of animals each year. The number of animals killed for fur trim is expected to overtake the number of animals killed for full-fur garments. Because the trim trade doesn't place as much emphasis on pelt quality, color, and uniformity, the quality of care given to furbearers is diminished.

Fur is DEAD!



http://www.infurmation.com/