With China in the news so much at the present, we feel it very necessary that the other non-Olympic side of China be shown to the World. Thus, we would like to show this information to you as provided by our friends and fellow campaigners at Swiss Animal Protection (SAP). Please read the intoductory text and at the link saying ‘Go To’, please click for additional text and very disturbing images.
SAV consider that it is essential that these images are available to be viewed and we have no concerns at giving links to them – fighting animal abuse and animal suffering is what we all exist for, but it is a fight which very often shows the darker side of what some members of the human race can do to other living species.
http://www.animal-protection.net:80/furtrade/chinafur.html
Dying for Fur – Inside the Chinese Fur Trade
SWISS ANIMAL PROTECTION SAP
Dornacherstrasse 101
P.O. Box 461
CH-4008 BaselTel. + 41 61 365 99 99
Fax + 41 61 365 99 90
sts@tierschutz.com
For at least ten years, the international fur industry has waged a coordinated, well funded and slick global PR campaign aimed at dispelling the moral stigma attached to wearing fur.Mixing fur with silk, wool, suede and leather, employing new manufacturing processes such as shearing and knitting, as well as new fashionable colours, have added novelty and versatility to fur. Steadily increasing marketing of fur accessories and clothing and footwear with fur trim (e.g. collars, scarves or on hoods) has almost imperceptibly brought fur back out onto the streets.Eighty five percent of the world ’s fur originates from farms. China is the world ’s largest exporter of fur clothing and according to industry sources, the biggest fur trade production and processing base in the world. Wild species bred for fur include red and arctic foxes, raccoon dogs, mink, and Rex Rabbits. According to Chinese fur industry sources, a growing number of international fur traders, processors and fashion designers have gradually shifted their business to China, where cheap labour and the absence of restrictive regulations make life easier and profit margins broader.In all farms visited in China, animals were handled roughly and were confined to rows of inappropriate, small wire cages. Signs of extreme anxiety and pathological behaviours were prominent throughout. Other indicators of poor welfare include high cub mortality and infanticide.
Between November and December, foxes are sold, slaughtered, skinned and their fur is processed. Animals are often slaughtered adjacent to wholesale markets, where farmers bring their animals for trade and large companies come to buy stocks.
To get there, animals are often transported over large distances and under horrendous conditions before being slaughtered. They are stunned with repeated blows to the head or swung against the ground. Skinning begins with a knife at the rear of the belly whilst the animal is hung up-side-down by its hind legs from a hook. A significant number of animals remain fully conscious during this process. Supremely helpless, they struggle and try to fight back to the very end. Even after their skin has been stripped off breathing, heart beat, directional body and eyelid movements were evident for 5 to 10 minutes.l Update: The Slaughter behind 200-million-yuan Revenue from Fur
In Hebei province’s Shangcun Market – which accounts for over 60% of China’s pelt trade – the phenomenon of live skinning of animals has become a cause for concern.
(Article from the Beijing News online of 5 April 2005; pdf-File)
For more text and disturbing images, please Go To
http://www.animal-protection.net/furtrade/beijing_news.pdf
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Posted by: “Dr John Wedderburn” john@aapn.org jwed
Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:14 am (PDT)
WorldNetDaily: China flaying animals alive
Posted by: rumsiki@netvision.net.il
Wed Aug 20, 2008 3:45 pm (PDT)
From: AR-News@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 6:14 PM
Subject: [AR-News] WorldNetDaily: China flaying animals alive
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 _____
VIDEONETDAILY
Posted: August 19, 2008
By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily
Editor’s Note: The descriptions and video of China’s fur industry in this
story will be disturbing to some readers.
The newest controversy over exports from China has caused nightmares for
researchers documenting the abuse inflicted on animals bred and raised in
tiny cages and then skinned alive for their fur.
WND has reported multiple times on problems with exports from China.
Now comes word from an extended investigation into the fur trade that China
is estimated to produce approximately 85 percent of the world’s fur products
– and it has virtually no regulations or rules for the treatment of the
animals.
According to Mark Rissi, a spokesman for Swiss Animal
Protection, which
has documented abuse of animals raised for their fur as early as 1983, the
China project has been going on for several years.The organization’s report <
> has been made
available online, with dramatic images and descriptions that researchers
found more than disturbing.”As animals are considered objects in China, there is little or no awareness
for the suffering of these sentient beings,” Rissi told WND from his
European base of operations via e-mail. “The cruelty found was beyond our
expectations, and it was hard to document without interfering. It caused
nightmares to the team, especially in the editing room, because the scenes
had to be replayed and replayed to be edited from six hours down to 20
minutes.”
Rissi said the actual onsite investigation was done by his organization’s
staff members as well as trusted Asian animal protection supporters, but as
fur production was not a controversial subject, “people willingly showed
their farms to the team.”
He said he’s glad other organizations, such as the U.S.-based People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals, have joined in his group’s campaign.
“Our main goal was to get this distributed because we want consumers
worldwide to be aware about the cruelty involved in the fur fashion,” he
said.
“People have a right to know that a huge percentage of fur is imported from
China, which doesn’t have any federal laws protecting animals on fur farms.
People who might contribute to this atrocity by purchasing fur or
fur-trimmed garments need to know about the horrible suffering of the
animals who wore that skin first,” PETA spokeswoman Melissa Karpel told WND.
“We want them to see how fur farmers slam terrified animals — including
raccoon pups — on the ground and skin them while they’re still conscious.
People need to know what they’re really buying when they buy fur or fur
trim,” she said.
“Conditions on Chinese fur farms make a mockery of the most elementary
animal welfare standards,” the Swiss report said. “This report shows that
China’s colossal fur industry routinely subjects animals to housing,
husbandry, transport and slaughter practices that are unacceptable from a
veterinary, animal welfare and moral point of view.”
PETA has posted a Swiss Animal Protection video on its U.S. site,
documenting the bloody violence prevalent in the Chinese fur industry.
The report contained the testimony from witnesses to a dog slaughter:
Once pulled out from its cage, the raccoon dog curls up into a ball in
mid-air. … One woman in a headscarf is first to grab hold of the raccoon
dog’s tail and the others drift away peevishly. The woman in the headscarf
swings the animal upwards. It forms an arc in the air and is then slammed
heavily to the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust. The raccoon dog tries to
stand up, its paws scrabbling in the grit. The wooden club in the woman’s
hand swings down onto its forehead. The woman picks up the animal and walks
toward the other side of the road, throwing it onto a pile of other raccoon
dogs. A stream of blood trickles from its muzzle, but its eyes are open and
it continues to repeatedly blink, move its paws, raise its head and collapse
to the ground. Beside it lies another raccoon dog. Its four limbs have been
hacked off but still it continues to yelp.
The report then graphically describes how the dogs are skinned, sometimes
while they are living.
Rissi noted that the Humane Society of the United States also has worked on
the investigation, citing well-known U.S. companies, including J.C. Penney,
Burlington Coat Factory, Bloomingdale’s, Sak’s Fifth Avenue and Macy’s, for
selling Chinese-produced fur products, sometimes labeling them as “faux fur”
or raccoon when the actual product is from a raccoon dog.
The Swiss Animal Protection report said slaughter methods range from
beatings with a metal or wooden stick or swinging the animal until it slams
to the ground.
Then they are skinned.
“They struggle and try to fight back to the very end. Even after their skin
has been stripped off breathing, heart beat, directional body and eyelid
movements were evident for five to 10 minutes,” the report said.
The process is repeated millions of times, as China processes up to 100,000
pelts in a day at times.
The Swiss organization said China should pass a national animal welfare law,
prohibit skinning live animals, prohibit inhumane treatment and slaughter
methods, and the rest of the world should shun the use of fur.
Swiss Animal Protection is the umbrella organization of 58 regional animal
protection associations in Switzerland and the Principality of
Liechtenstein. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and biggest animal
protection organization operating throughout Switzerland.
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