When glamor and elegance rhyme with barbarity and suffering.

Two days ago, we had the opportunity to talk about Israel which has just banned the import and export fur trade in the fashion sector. An extraordinary advance and a sign, perhaps, that finally awareness is taking place.

All kinds of animals are raised and killed for their furs or skins. We commonly think of mink, chinchillas, seals, foxes, rabbits and other lambs, but much more rarely of dogs and cats. And yet. They are part of the lot and their lot is no more enviable than that of other species. According to the Fourrure Torture association, two million dogs and cats are killed for their fur every year around the world.

Source - image PETA France -

The following excerpt is taken from a report by a PETA Asia investigator. The report, as eloquent as it is frightening, shows the daily life of a dog slaughterhouse in eastern China. Here is what he reports: “The dogs are violently grabbed by the necks one after the other with metal pliers and clubbed on the head with a club. Some dogs pass out while others howl and agonize with serious head injuries. Others suffocate after having their throats cut. Finally, they are butchered. Employees are butchering dogs that are still alive. Dogs about to be skinned can smell, hear, and see what is happening to those ahead. Many of them are so terrified that they climb on top of each other in the waiting area, desperately looking for an escape route. A slaughterhouse worker can kill up to 200 dogs every day. "

On the day of the video's shooting, 300 live dogs were waiting to be slaughtered.

Thereafter, everything is done to deceive the end consumer by providing false information on the origin of the furs or skins. The latter, once transformed, will end up in the hands of elegant people in the form of evening gloves, shoes, belts or coat collar fittings, among others.

You should know that in China, there is no sanction against the mistreatment of animals in farms, and dogs and cats, just like other animals, perish under conditions that are beyond comprehension. All over the world - because China is far from the only country to resort to these vile practices - the methods are the same. Over 85% of the fur that is sold in the world today comes from what are called "fur farms".

We have all seen images of baby seals being slaughtered on the ice floes, the killings of foxes or mink that end up in coats. In this sad list of martyrs, very little is said about an animal which, however, pays a heavy price in this trade. Do you know the raccoon dog? Few know him. This small mammal is native to East Asia and was imported to Europe in the 20th century. He is a distant wild cousin of dogs and sports a long, ringless tail that is popular for making the edges of hooded coats. According to the Humane Society International animal protection association United Kingdom (HSI / UK): “in 2018, no less than 160,000 raccoon dogs were kept on farms in Finland, 1,000 in Poland… and 12 million in China! "Whatever the country where they are raised, raccoon dogs are imprisoned in small metal cages, deprived of the possibility of expressing their natural behaviors" specifies Harriet Barclay, Campaigns and Media Manager at HSI / UK, interviewed by 30millionsdamis. Fr.

In 2005, the Swiss Animal Protection / EAST International association disseminated a first survey revealing the hell of raccoon dogs in farms in China. The video showed “animals crammed into tiny cages up to 8 months old, at which age they were clubbed, hung upside down and skinned alive. " In 2015, it was the turn of activists from the Animal Equality association to infiltrate two Chinese fur farms and witness to the horrors: " thirsty, wounded animals, made mad by being locked up in cages narrow and dirty. They were only spared the skinning live. "The most common way to kill raccoon dogs for fur isn't much less terrifying," Harriet Barclay said, however. They are electrocuted to death by a process that causes appalling suffering ”.

It is impossible to list an exhaustive list of the suffering that man inflicts on very many animal species for money. Besides being an environmental aberration because it is extremely polluting due to the chemicals used for processing, the fur trade is an ignominy that gives nausea to anyone with a minimum of sensitivity and humanity.

Cruelty to a living being is not acceptable. There is no elegance in showing off agony, no superiority in showing off suffering. Just shame.

Be very careful with the labels. Many are deceptive and pass real fur as synthetic fur. It is impossible to know the reality. In the United States and Europe, HSI / UK reports that: "Over the past 5 years, we have detected a large number of tagged mink, rabbit, fox, chinchilla and raccoon fur items" false, "which prompts well-meaning customers to buy the very products they were trying to avoid," says Harriet Barclay. While storefront stores have cleaned up, we still find fur hidden in physical markets - especially Christmas markets - and on platforms such as Amazon and eBay. ".

So in this difficulty of disentangling the true from the false, there remains a simple and salutary gesture that we can all adopt: we do not buy!