EU law to ban trade in cat and dog fur

Date published: 21/11/2006

A new EU law will prevent Rochdale shoppers from unwittingly encouraging a cruel trade in cat and dog skins.

Three years ago Rochdale Euro-MP Chris Davies highlighted the plight of more than two million cats and dogs that are killed in the Far East each year. Their fur, mostly originating from China, has been found across Europe in gloves, in fur collars on fashion clothing, and in novelty items including toy cats and dogs.

The need to maintain the quality of the fur means that the killing of these animals is extremely cruel.  Methods used include gassing, neck breaking, anal electrocution and drowning.

It is currently legal in the UK to import and sell products made with cat and dog fur, it is only an offence to sell these products under misleading names.

The fur brokers often mislabel products to obscure their origin.  Cat and dog fur has been sold as Corsac Fox, Asian Wolf, rabbit and maopee.  Some is unlabelled or dyed bright colours to appear as fake fur.

But now the EU has announced that cat and dog fur is to be banned from being imported or sold in Europe.

Chris Davies, who speaks for the Liberal Democrats on animal welfare issues in the European Parliament, has welcomed the new proposals.

He said:  "The Commission has been telling us for years that it had no power to act, so it's good news that their lawyers have found a way around the obstacles.

"More than two million cats and dogs are said to be killed each year in the Far East to supply the market with cheap fur used in coat and boot linings, poms poms, and even in childrens' figurines of toys cats. 

"This is a disgusting, cruel and unregulated business, with animals kept in appalling conditions and sometimes skinned alive.  By closing Europe's markets once and for all to the products we have a real chance of stamping out the trade at source."

The International Fur Association has a voluntary ban on cat and dog furs, but those using fur as accessories are circumventing this code of conduct. For example pom-poms on jumpers and novelty items including fur toys are outside the main scope of the fur trade.

Several countries including the USA, New Zealand and Switzerland have already banned import or sale of cat and dog fur.

It is difficult to quantify the amount of fur entering the EU but it was estimated that 66 tonnes of cat and dog fur was imported into Britain in 2001.