"More than 100 million animals die for their fur each year, the majority suffering in small battery cages. The UK banned fur farming as ‘unethical’ in 2000, recognising that keeping wild animals in tiny cages can never be humane.
But the UK is now outsourcing fur cruelty overseas, causing suffering to millions of animals. More than two-thirds of the British public reject this double-standard and support a fur import and sales ban.
Let’s lead the world on animal welfare. Let’s ban the fur trade in the UK" #FurFreeBritain
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Beware of Real Fur Masquerading as Fake
Campaigners have warned that fur "can de dyed every colour under the sun" and that consumers should still beware of buying it incase it is real. Animal rights experts have advised shoppers buying faux fur products to “leave the item on the shelf” if they have any concerns at all that it could actually be made of real hair.
The Humane Society International said there is a “very widespread” problem with “hundreds” of real fur products potentially marketed as fake, as it issued advice on the topic. The comments come after UK clothes retailers were ordered to take immediate action to ensure they are not advertising real fur as faux by the Committees of Advertising Practice"
Don't Accidentally End Up Wearing Real Fur
Winter is coming and faux fur is in fashion. While the UK no longer farms fur, as the above demonstrates, we have a poorly regulated trade from EU and Chinese imports, which commonly see's real fur mislabeled as faux.
Don’t Go by Price: It is wrong to assume real fur will be expensive, real fur can be produced and sold more cheaply than faux fur. The fur on sale in the UK is often in the form of pompoms on accessories and as trims on boots, gloves and coat hoods.
Beware of Buying Online: EU regulations state that “textile products” (clothes etc) containing fur should be labelled as containing “non-textile parts of animal origin”. However, this doesn’t need to be included in online product descriptions. A concern when so many garments and textiles are imported from China.
Check the Ends: The ends of real hair tapers and has pointed ends. The hairs of faux fur are blunt from where they have been cut in manufacture.
Check the Base: Animal fur usually has a leathery backing, where faux fur will have a material woven backing. However, beware of flocked fabrics, as these may also have a material backing but may be made with real fur fibers. If in doubt, don't buy it.
Burn It: Not something that can best tested in a shop, but real animal fur singes and will smell distinctly of burnt hair. Faux fur melts and smells like plastic.
Walk Away: Faux fur can be extremely convincing and if it's not faux, it's real. If you are unsure, don't buy it.
It's not just fox fur sold as faux. Sharing as may be of interest;
A combined morphological and molecular approach for hair identification to comply with the European ban on dog and cat fur trade
I definitely agree that standards still aren't as good as they should be. There's still a lot more to be done in terms of welfare. I recently started collecting postcards featuring foxes and have found some great ones of old fur farms, like this one I got today from America;
The biggest problem with all kinds of farming is industrialisation. You go from small, family run farms to huge productions with thousands of animals crammed into a fairly small space. There's always going to be welfare issues when that happens sadly.
My biggest concern with banning fur farming in higher welfare countries is that you just end up shifting production more towards China where conditions really are heartbreakingly cruel. Ultimately you just end up with animals suffering even worse. If animals are going to be farmed for their fur I'd much rather see a push for welfare reforms in countries where such improvements can actually be enforced. But you're right, there not much we can do about it in the UK, sadly. It is a tricky subject and I don't think there's an easy solution.
Real fur being sold as fake is definitely an issue. It happened to my sister a few years ago. She bought a coat online labelled as having fake fur but when it arrived it had real raccoon dog fur, no doubt from some awful farm in China. I think there needs to be much better labelling on new fur products being sold, stating exactly what country the fur came from and whether it was farmed or hunted/trapped. At least let consumers make an informed decision. For me, I mostly only wear fur that's vintage, at least 40+ years old. It's basically just recycling an existing product which is better than throwing it away. The only new fur I wear is a coyote fur collar. Since coyotes aren't farmed I at least know it would have lived a good life (I know fur trapping is a whole other debate but when well regulated I don't have an issue with it.) As mentioned before I do have some farmed pelts but they all come from WelFur certified farms that I've either seen pictures of or I know someone whose actually visited said farms. At least then I know the animals aren't being mistreated. (I collect pelts and taxidermy to show the variety of foxes. Mostly I collect pelts from wild foxes and have ones from all over the world, including the US, Canada, Russia and Egypt. It's fascinating seeing how much they vary and like you would love to use my collection for education to teach about foxes someday.)
I do have issues with the way fur is framed as more cruel than meat though. People sympathise with foxes because they're cute and fluffy and look like their family dog, but go home and eat bacon from pigs kept in tiny farrowing crates or chicken from battery cages. It seems people are more willing to ignore suffering to meat and dairy animals. I also know for a fact that some of the big fox rescues/pet owners online who campaign against fur buy pelts and taxidermy for their personal enjoyment. One in particular has harassed and tried to shut down the social media accounts of a good taxidermist friend of mine. A lot of the so-called 'rescued' foxes are also bought from farms for more money than a pelt would be worth, which is really just continuing to fund these farms. There's an awful lot of hypocrisy in the anti-fur movement.
This going to be a very unpopular opinion but I strongly oppose a fur ban and don't believe there is anything wrong with wearing real fur. Personally I only wear real fur (mostly vintage). Fake fur is terrible for the environment as it's made of plastic and contently sheds microplastics that end up in out waterways. Real fur is much more natural and sustainable.
Imo there is nothing inherently wrong with farming animals for fur and it's no different from farming for meat. If anything fur animals have much stronger welfare laws protecting them than meat animals do. I follow a number of Welfur certified fur farmers on Instagram who take fantastic care of their animals. Frankly you have to take good care of them if you want to make any money. An animal that's sick, poorly cared for etc will not produce a good pelt. I have a couple of pelts from one of the farms and you can see just from examining them how well cared for the animals were. That doesn't mean fur farms are perfect by any means and there's still a lot of welfare improvements to be made, but well run farms are nowhere near as bad as animal rights groups would want you to believe. I would support a ban on importing fur from places like China, Russia and Eastern Europe where welfare standards are poor, but a full ban is wrong imo. It's much better to campaign for welfare improvements than total bans and people should have the choice whether they want to wear fur or not.