Fox Fur: Harrods staff give customers misleading information.

On November 22, 2021, sales staff at fashion companies - all wearing Harrods branded badges - made misleading statements about the painful living conditions in which caged animals are kept and how they are killed, when asked about farmed fox fur from Finland.

The sales rep for Yves Salomon falsely claimed that foxes on fur farms are not kept in cages, telling the undercover customer that they are kept in " their own private space " in " separate spaces" at the same time. image of what can be seen in the home for dogs and cats in the London district of Battersea. The client was repeatedly told that foxes are not kept in a cage and even that " they have enough space to play among other things " . In truth, the animals are confined in small sterile cages made of one-square-meter wire. These pitiful conditions were exposed this week in HSI's secret investigation into three Finnish fox fur farms which showed animals in cages barely longer than their body length, nose to tail. Many foxes also suffered from deformed legs and diseased eyes.

Another sales rep for Yves Salomon at Harrods gave the undercover HSI / UK buyer false assurance that before the animals were killed, "they were given an injection" in order to "put them to sleep" then that in truth foxes (and raccoon dogs) are anal electrocuted without any anesthesia. When our client expressed concern about some videos she had seen of animals suffering for the fur trade, she was told “this is just propaganda, ma'am”.

Moncler's sales assistant even made the astonishing statement that her Finnish fox fur was just a by-product, saying "our furs come from animals that have already been killed for other purposes, such as by example meat or something else " . While raising foxes for their meat for human consumption is illegal in the EU.

Humane Society International / UK, which is leading the #FurFreeBritain campaign for a UK fur ban, along with Finnish animal rights activists Oikeutta Eläimille, visited three animal breeding farms fur industry in Finland's Ostrobothnia, a country that has exported more than £ 11million of fur to the UK since 2000 despite a ban on the same cruelty on UK fur farms. Photos and videos can be downloaded here . Filming took place in October 2021.

Claire Bass, Executive Director of Humane Society International / UK, who has visited the fur farms, said: “It is no surprise that the staff at Harrods do not want to describe the grim reality of the life of animals on fur farms, as that would surely leave their customers horrified. The week before our chat with the five Harrods vendors who all creatively covered up the cruelty of the fur trade, I visited several so-called 'high welfare Finnish fur farms. And I found myself facing the abject misery and suffering of thousands of foxes locked in sterile one-square-meter battery cages all their lives. By Christmas, they will all have been killed by anal electrocution, and the lies told by public relations members of the luxury fur industry will pay off: the lifeless furs will all be sold.

The claim that fur farms are “like Battersea,” a pet rescue house, was a whole new level of illusions and lies. Fur Farms and Battersea are like day and night when it comes to animal welfare. Claims by a director of Harrods that their fur is "ethically sourced and sustainable" do not deserve any scrutiny. There is nothing ethical about breeding fur animals, certified or not. HSI members urge Harrods to stop peddling lies and stop selling fur-coated cruelty. And the sooner the UK government bans the import and sale of animal fur, the sooner we can stop funding this brutal industry. "

Max Mara's sales staff told the investigator that his fur is certified by the SAGA Furs ** insurance system of the fur trade, which they say means: "Guaranteed cruelty-free, pain-free manufacturing. [...] The consumer is therefore convinced that animals do not suffer. " However, at two SAGA Furs certified fox farms visited by HSI / UK, foxes with infected eyes and missing ears were filmed in terribly cramped cages. "

Fox fur native to Finland is used by brands such as Fendi, Moncler, Yves Salomon, Woolrich, Herno and Max Mara, and is seen in stores such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Flannels.

Finland is the largest producer of fox fur in Europe and the second in the world, exporting millions of pounds of fur all over the world, including to the UK. Since banning fur farming in 2000 for ethical reasons, the UK has imported over £ 850million of fur from various countries including France, Italy, Poland, China and the United States. Through its #FurFreeBritain campaign, HSI / UK is urging the government to end this campaign by banning the import and sale of fur in the UK, an initiative supported by 72% of much of the general public. The government is currently considering a ban on the sale of fur and recently held a public consultation which received 30,000 responses.

HSI / UK wrote to Harrods.

Please sign and share HSI's petition calling for a UK fur ban: www.hsi.org/FurFreeBritain