international news
“Fake” fur from cats, rabbits and dogs
“
Fake” fur being sold on the
[British] high street is actually from
cats, raccoon dogs and rabbits, an
investigation has found.
Items bought from popular stores
Missguided and House of Fraser, which
were labelled as faux fur, were found to
be real after tests by a fibres expert.
Sky News found that a pair of gloves
bought from House of Fraser were found
to have fur likely to be from a rabbit.
Missguided sold a pair of pink stiletto
heels decorated with pom poms to
shopper Donna Allison. After testing, the
pom poms were found to have been made
with real fur, most likely to be from a cat.
[Allison says] she initially contacted
the store on Twitter with her concerns but
representatives insisted that it was fake
fur.
She told Sky News: “My life is basically
animals and cats, so it’s really hurtful,
really shocking”.
“Whether they know they are selling it
or not there needs to be something done
about it. They need to be more responsible
for what they are selling.”
Experts say that fur being sold as
fake is increasingly real animal fur, often
sourced from mass farming in Asia.
Raccoon dog fur is becoming
particularly popular because of its soft,
dense qualities, they added.
The animals also have large litters of
up to 16 per parent couple, meaning they
can be farmed on a large scale. They are
then skinned alive for their fur.Fibres expert Phil Greaves who tested
the products says the mislabelling of real
animal fur is “becoming increasingly
common, particularly over the past five
years”.
Both stores have fur-free policies and
say they will stop selling the items which
had been found to contain real fur.
A spokesman for House of Fraser says
that customers would be offered a refund
if they had bought the gloves.
He says: “House of Fraser has a strict
no fur policy and we ensure all of our
suppliers and brand partners are aware
of this”.
“We would never knowingly mislead
our customers, who we believe have the
right to know what they are purchasing.
We are extremely concerned that fur can
be mislabelled in this way, particularly for
brands that we stock.”
“Our customers want assurances that
House of Fraser is not complicit in such
unnecessary suffering of animals and
we take this issue very seriously and
have communicated this to the brand in
question.”
A second pair of pointed pumps sold
by Missguided were identified as having
pom poms most consistent with rabbit
fur.
Missguided stresses it has a strict no
fur policy and removed the shoes from
sale after being informed of the findings.
A spokesman says: “We’ll be launching
an internal investigation with the relevant
suppliers and will ensure these mattersare addressed urgently.”
At Christmas, an undercover
investigation by Good Morning Britain
found high street stores Debenhams and
Forever 21 were selling items labelled as
faux fur which actually contained angora
rabbit fur.
A £40 ($62) Debenhams bag had
a pom pom attached which contained
the fur. A Christmas bag sold by Forever
21 also had a white pom pom attached
which was found to contain angora.
Both chains have a no fur policy.
Forever 21 said it had “zero tolerance for
the violation of these policies” and would
investigate the claims.
Debenhams said: “On discovery that
an external brand had included a real fur
item on an accessory product we took
immediate action to remove the products
from the shop floor and our website”.
Claire Bass, executive director of
charity Humane Society International,
says: “It is extremely concerning to find
cat fur on sale illegally in the UK, both
because of the cruelty that cat and all
fur products represent, but also because
it will rightly dent the confidence of
consumers seeking to buy only fake fur”.
“Fake faux fur is a growing problem;
when items have cheap price tags and
labels saying ‘100 per cent acrylic’,
consumers can understandably be caught
out mistaking them for fake fur, when in
fact they contain fur from a tormented
animal.”
Olivia Rudgard, The TelegraphT
aiwan’s parliament has
approved a bill banning the
slaughter of cats and dogs
for human consumption. The bill
also prohibits those using a car or
motorbike from pulling their pets
alongside them on a lead as they
travel.
Anyone caught breaching the
order faces a large fine or up to
two years in prison - and having
their names and photographs
made public.
The measures were introduced
to improve the country’s animal
protection laws. The move is a
landmark amendment to Taiwan’s
Animal Protection Act, and is the
first of its kind in Asia.In 2001, Taiwan passed
legislation banning the sale of
meat and fur of pets such as cats
and dogs for what it described as
“economic purposes”.
Dog meat was once regularly
consumed on the island, but
the animal is now more likely to
be considered a member of the
family.
Last year, Taiwanese President
Tsai Ing-wen adopted three retired
guide dogs to live along with her
two cats, Cookie and A-Tsai.
Ms Tsai, who is Taiwan’s first
female leader, attracted attention
at the time with what was dubbed
the country’s new “first family”.
BBC NewsTaiwan bans slaughter of cats and
dogs for human consumption