Mike Moser: Fur is not a necessity. It's for vanity. In 2020, there is no justification for fur - full stop. That an animal is caged for his entire life is wrong.
SARAH HAJIBAGHERI: The former CEO of the British Fur Trade Association has called on the prime minister to ban fur sales in the UK. Mike Moser, who worked in the fur industry for a decade, described it as “anachronistic, barbaric and unnecessary”. In an exclusive broadcast interview with Sky News, he said: “I visited fur farms across the globe. I saw animals in cages, stressed and suffering…prime minister I’m calling upon you to stop this inconsistency, to stop this cruel practice and to ban the sale of fur – now.”
Fur farming was banned in the UK in 2000 after a consultation found overwhelming public support for the move. However, the UK still imports foreign-farmed fur including fox, rabbit, mink, racoon and chinchilla, which Mr Moser believes is “inconsistent, ambiguous, and hypocritical”. He told Sky News: “Fur is not a necessity. It’s for vanity. In 2020, there is no justification for fur – full stop. That an animal is caged for its entire life is wrong.”
He says the fur trade “has no place in modern society” and “is out of place and out of time”. He claims it was coming home to his pet labrador after visiting fur farms overseas that made him increasingly question the ethics of keeping foxes and raccoon dogs in wire cages for their entire lives. He added: “It’s a big U-turn for me, but it’s OK to change your mind and I would implore people who are considering buying fur to change their minds.”
Mr Moser resigned from his role as chief executive of the British Fur Trade Association (BFTA) after he gave evidence at a parliamentary inquiry launched due to a Sky News investigation into the mis-selling of real fur as fake… During his 10 years working for the fur industry, Mr Moser visited farms on five continents and found the confined conditions “upsetting”.
He told Sky News: “The animals on the fur farms are born in cages, and they lead their short lives in the cages. They never know what it’s like to run free. The cages are mesh cages. “They have to be so that the faeces of the animals can fall through the floor. So in the case of the mink and young fox cubs… their feet are too small to walk on the mesh and quite often they fall through the floor.
“Both these animals, particularly the mink, have padded feet, walking on these metal grids causes sores. It must be immensely uncomfortable.” He was also distressed by what he felt were high density farm conditions. “If you take foxes in particular, the cages are barely larger than the animal,” he said. “Now the welfare regulations in Europe, which are held to be gold standard by the industry were published in 1999, they haven’t changed for 21 years…
Mr Moser is now working alongside the Humane Society International charity to campaign for a ban on fur. Claire Bass, HSI executive director, told Sky News: “Mike spent 10 years on the inside of the fur trade, so his verdict that this is an inherently and unacceptably cruel business is a pretty damning indictment. “I fully respect Mike’s change of heart, and he now has an important and powerful message for the UK government – if someone like him with a decade’s experience inside the fur industry says it’s right to ban fur sales, then it’s time to take action and end the suffering”. SOURCE…
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