Merciless Slaughter: the unspeakable horror of China’s fur farms

SAP PC 01.02.2005, Fur China

Merciless Slaughter: the unspeakable horror of China’s fur farms
Heinz Lienhard, President, Swiss Animal Protection (SAP)
Opening speech, SAP press launch 1st Febraury 2005 Zurich, Switzerland

We may well be familiar with the conditions in Scandinavian and Eastern European ‘fur farms’ where hundreds of thousands of wild animals are kept in battery cages before meeting a brutal death in the name of fashion and vanity. Industry claims of “appropriate housing”, “good animal welfare laws in fur producing countries” and “happy animals, which generate glossy pelts” have long since been exposed as misleading whitewash. With the possible exception of some glamorous winter resorts, fur coats, capes and other pricy fur garments have all but vanished from the streets of Switzerland. Most people feel embarrassed to be seen in them. Others are unwilling to waste thousands of
Swiss Francs on this type of phoney luxury. There are, after all, endless ways of
keeping warm and staying fashionable.

Nevertheless, fur is still big business. A string of commercial interests is cashing in, including breeders, fur farmers, exporters, importers, wholesalers, retailers, boutiques, department stores, and fashion houses. With fur sales flagging in the past, they have been busy searching for that all important new sales angle. And they found it: mass produced affordable fur garments for everyone. Fashion designers too have decided that fur trim is ‘chic’ and trendy. Instead of expensive full-length fur coats, fur now adorns anything from boots to parkas and coats – even children’s clothes don’t seem to be able to do without it. Fur has become a fashion fad!

Most of today’s ‘budget fur’, which appears as trim on hoods and as collars, originates from China, which dominates much of today’s market. It is estimated that China produces more than 1.5 million fox pelts a year and approximately the same number of raccoon dog pelts. Other common species ‘produced’ in China include mink, and even dogs and cats. China is literally swamping the international fur markets with its wares!

It comes as no surprise that, in defiance of the most basic animal welfare standards, the country’s millions of fur bearing animals are housed in the same scandalously cramped wire mesh cages that are customary in other fur producing countries. But until a few weeks ago, nobody knew the truth about how foxes and raccoon dogs on Chinese farm die. In collaboration with Asian animal protectionists, who used hidden cameras to document this gruesome business across the county’s far flung provinces, Swiss Animal Protection (SAP) today reveals a terrible truth. Joining forces with international conservation and animal welfare organisations, SAP will today, reveal the findings of this investigation to the world. The unspeakable horror we uncovered dwarfs everything we
know about the nightmarish housing conditions and brutal killing methods employed in western fur ‘farms’.

By publicising these horrendous and deeply disturbing images from China, we want to make each and every member of the public aware of the truth behind the fur trim that decorates their collar or hood. The truth about how these animals were forced to live, and the way they had to die. This unspeakable disgrace has no place in a civilized world. If it is to end, the pubic needs to know the truth, so that decent and respectable people will no longer be willing to wear the products of such misery.

Our documentary concentrates on foxes and other wild animals. However, China also exports the skins of the companion animals we love and share our homes with. There is little doubt that these cats and dogs are kept under similarly dreadful conditions and die in the same barbaric fashion wild animals on fur farms are forced to endure. As part of talks concerning revisions of the Swiss Animal Protection Act, I personally asked the Swiss Minister of Economic Affairs, Josef Deiss, last year to at least prohibit the importation of dog and cat fur from China. Such a ban has already been introduced in many European countries and the USA. But my request fell on deaf ears. I will try to share this documentary with Minister Deiss and hope that he has the stomach to watch it.

Eighty thousand people have signed the petition against importing dog and cat fur from Asia. Swiss Animal Protection (SAP) deposited it in Bern, and National Councillor Dr. Paul Guenter will soon follow up with a parliamentary intervention. We will not rest until this abomination is banned from our country!

In closing, I would like to salute the Asian investigators, who have obtained this footage by using hidden cameras. They have accepted a great personal risk, and their lives would be in jeopardy if their identities were to become known. To protect them, even their voices had to altered in this documentary. Having to remain anonymous, they will never gain the recognition or win the public accolades they deserve. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank these courageous individuals and express my admiration and respect for what they did. Because we will never be able to thank them in person, I wanted to at least use this opportunity to publicly acknowledge their contribution.

Heinz Lienhard