U.S. manufacturer fur sales hit $531 million last year, a 17-year high. A NatGeo investigation suggested that many people have turned a blind eye to graphic images of animals kept captive in industrial-scale fur farms.
QUENTIN FOTTRELL: ‘Assembly Bill 44, that just went into law, bans the sale and manufacturing of fur products in California. Retailers and manufacturers could be fined $1,000 for violations… The California prohibition applies to clothing, handbags, footwear, hats, or any accessories like key chains that contain fur… That was followed by an announcement from Macy’s that it would stop selling real fur products at its department stores, which includes Bloomingdale’s, by the end of fiscal 2020…
This is the first statewide fur ban in the U.S., but it follows the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles, which separately announced last year that they’re banning the sale of animal fur products. The anti-fur movement has also gone global: Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Luxembourg and Serbia, among others, have banned fur farming.
[But] Americans are not prepared to go naked in lieu of wearing fur. In fact, people appear to be incorporating this luxury item into their all sorts of home comforts — from rugs and furniture to pillows and lamp shades, despite highly successful campaigns by animal rights groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)… U.S. manufacturer fur sales hit $531 million last year, reaching a 17-year high, according to the market-research firm Euromonitor International.
But it’s not all fur hats, gloves and coats. Spending on fur by the furniture industry, has risen by roughly 2% annually in recent year as a chair covering and in other soft furnishings. An investigation by National Geographic earlier this month suggested that many people have turned a blind eye to graphic images of animals kept captive in industrial-scale fur farms.
Fur farms dominate the trade, and production has more than doubled since the 1990s, to about 100 million skins last year, mostly mink and some fox,” it found. “Trappers typically add millions of wild beaver, coyote, raccoon, muskrat and other skins. That’s besides untold millions of cattle, lambs, rabbits, ostriches, crocodiles, alligators and caimans harvested for food as well as skins”…
Industrialization has made the problem even more acute for both the animals and those who want to ban fur farming and trapping. “Like pig or chicken farming, fur farming is about keeping animals in captivity their entire lives and then killing them. It entails practices many people would consider unthinkable. Some fox farmers, for example, kill their animals by anal electrocution. It’s supposedly the quickest practical method,” National Geographic added’. SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEO: