When the deer nibble the rosebuds and the rabbits go after the radishes, what do you do? You don’t want to harm them. You understand their attraction to the delicacies in your garden. But you’ve put in countless back-breaking hours, and you just want these uninvited guests to find dinner elsewhere. Many gentle gardeners, looking for a natural deterrent, purchase bottled animal urine, hoping the strong odor will frighten away their unwanted guests.
Garden experts say it doesn’t work; animals aren’t afraid of the scent. But there’s a bigger problem: Coyotes, foxes, raccoons and other animals whose urine is collected, bottled and sold to garden centers live in fear. And squalor.

On one urine-collection farm (where animals were also raised and killed for their fur), PETA investigators found foxes and raccoons crammed into tiny, filth-encrusted cages. The urine is collected in trays beneath the cages, so the animals have no bedding to lie on or to protect their feet from the wire floor. Some animals were injured, with exposed bones and infected, untreated wounds. Many had gone “cage-crazy” and circled endlessly, as though searching frantically for some way to comfort themselves in their small wire prisons. Some foxes, in despair, chewed and mutilated their own bodies.

When it was time to “harvest” the fur, the foxes and raccoons on this farm suffered an agonizing death by anal electrocution. The farmer placed a metal conductor in the frightened animals’ mouths, shoved an electric prod into their rectums and shot 250 volts through their bodies.

Urine/fur farms are not regulated by federal agencies, and the abuse witnessed by our investigators is common. Hundreds of farms continue to keep, exploit and kill animals for their urine. The best way to end this suffering is to put urine collectors out of business. PETA has contacted thousands of gardening centers and asked them not to sell bottled urine. Many have already pulled these products from their shelves.

Now we need your help.