Another largely hidden aspect of the fur trade is that these animals being killed for their fur are not always wild. In fact millions of cats and dogs - domestic cats and dogs-  are killed every year for their fur. This fur trade is extremely common in China and other parts of Asia. They are stuffed together in small cages and beaten to death just like the wild animals. Can you imagine your pet dog or cat being beaten to death, with a club, or your dog or cat being picked up by its hind legs and having its head slammed on the cement? The dogs and cats are raised in parts of Asia, but their fur is sent worldwide.

In fact, a lot of this fur is labeled “faux fur”. It wasn’t that long ago that P. Diddy’s clothing line was found to contain real fur, even though it was labeld “faux”. P. Diddy issued an apology of sorts, but he didn’t know that the fur was real. So basically, even if you already wear “faux fur”, there is a slight chance that it may be real anyway.

 Its not only in Asia that dogs and cats are affected by the fur trade. Many dogs and cats in America get caught in snares and bear traps set up for wild animals. Go to the website below to see a picture of someone’s pet dog pinned by a bear trap, with the metal digging in its skin.

http://www.hsus.org/furfree/dogs_cats/dog_and_cat_victims.html

If you want to make sure you never buy fur, go to this website. It has a list of retailers that refuse to sell real fur. Some common fur-free clothing lines include: Abercrombie and Fitch, Aeropostale, American Apparel, bebe stores (starting january 2008), Delias, Foot Locker, Forever 21, the Gap and H&M. The list goes on and on, so you won’t be limited in your choices by going fur-free.

http://www.hsus.org/furfree/fashion/retailers/furfree_retailers_designers.html

 If you happen to own any clothing made of real fur and you no longer want it, you can donate it to the Humane Society of the United States, and they will use it to help nurse orphaned wild animals. The baby animals snuggle up to the fur and believe that it is their mother.

 http://www.hsus.org/furfree/campaigns/c4c/

I am including a link to a video called “the life and death of China’s Racoon Dog” and it shows the brutal killings of these animals- millions of them - they are bashed on the ground and literally skinned alive (all shown on the video) . Click on the link that says “Play the Video”. I watch many of these videos, that is how I keep up with all the new animal rights issues, but this video was a bit much for me, I had to turn it off.

http://www.hsus.org/video_clips/life_and_death_of_chinas.html

The hunting of endangered species was banned in 1963. Yet, because of a loophole in the International Whaling Commission ban  in 1986 against commercial whaling, Japan has continued to kill whales every year for “scientific research”. Scientists collect data on the whales’ age and diet, and then the meat is sold for consumption. Suprise Suprise. Many say Japan’s research program is actually commercial whaling because the government sells the whale meat to restaurants to pay for it.  Japan found a hole in the law and are using it in order to continue killing whales for meat. There would not be a problem with this, except many of the whale species that they are harpooning are endangered. With Japan’s continued hunting, these whale populations have little to no chance of recovering.
According to the New York Times, there are many people who are taking action against this whale hunting, yet it still continues.
“Under intensifying pressure, particularly from Australia and the United States, Japan last month put off plans to kill up to 50 humpback whales this year as part of what it insists is a scientific research project, but it still intends to kill up to 935 minke whales (a small and relatively abundant species) and 50 finbacks (the second largest whale).”

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/whale-hunters-hunted/

 Organizations such as Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd go out and hunt the whale hunters, forcing them to flee and give up their efforts to kill whales. Greenpeace, as inferred by its name, is a peaceful organization that does not promote violence of any sort, so they tend to follow the whale hunting ships and photograph the greusome harpoonings of whales. Se Shepherd, on the other hand, is much more “hands-on” with its approach to stopping the Japanese whale hunt. They often throw stink bombs (not like normal stink bombs, really, really powerful ones!) aboard the whaling ship and do other things to bother the Japanese whalers in order to get them to stop harpooning the whales. Some of the Sea Shepherd supporters even jump onto the whaling ship and basically try to hijack it! In watching the first episode of “Whale Wars” on Animal Planet, I learned that the Captain of the Sea Shepherd group was actually the co-founder of Greenpeace, but the group voted him out because he was too violent. Now, Greenpeace refuses to associate with their former founder as well as all members of Sea Shepherd. If you would like to see more of this insanely fascinating way to stop whale hunting, you can watch Animal Planet’s new show called “WHALE WARS”

Here are some links to Animal Friendly websites:

1. The Animal Rescue Site: Click on this link, then click on the big purple button, and donate food to an animal in a local shelter for free! The sponsors listed on that page actually pay for it, so this a quick and easy way t0 contribute. Its not much, but it is a start and is most definitely better than doing nothing at all. All you have to do is click! Plus, if you browse around there are plenty of cute things to buy, or just sweet stories to read about animals that have been rescued.   http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3
2. The Humane Society of the United States is the world’s largest animal rights organization. It was founded in 1954, and since then it has accomplished so much for animals! This organization currently has about seven million members! This website is wonderful to visit if you are looking for the latest updates on laws and legistlation, as well as the newest expose on animal cruelty and how the HSUS is working to fight it by getting laws passed to make it illegal. “The HSUS protects all animals through legislation, litigation, investigation, education, advocacy and field work.” This organization and the people who work for it are amazing.  www.hsus.org
3. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in 1866! Its headquarters are in New York City and it is one of the largest animal protection agencies in the world.  “As the first humane organization to be granted legal authority to investigate and make arrests for crimes against animals, [The ASPCA is] wholly dedicated to fulfilling the ASPCA mission through nonviolent approaches”. The ASPCA has their on animal police that is often on a television show called “Animal Cops” on Animal Planet. This organization gets people who are cruel to animals off the streets. The ASPCA is another amazing organization that does wonders for the animals. This organization is more dedicated to the streets (in my opinion) and enforces the laws that they worked so hard to put in place.  www.aspca.org
4. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is another very well known animal rights organization. This organization takes a much different approach than the ASPCA or the HSUS, and it has successfully made its name and its cause known. PETA has many shocking advertisements, but that is just because they tell it like it is. There is no sugar coating in PETA. They want people to know what is really going out there, so they advocate and advertise so what htey know is no longer a secret. ”PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry” As you can see, each of these organizations as their own little niche, that they specialize in. PETA holds many protests and campaigns which really get the word spread. I think that is the most important thing in terms of animal cruelty - is exposing it. Most of the cruelty that goes on is hidden, and it is the job of organizations such as these to get the word out to the public, so we can make a change. www.peta.org
5. Petfinder.com is a great website that allows people to search pounds and rescues from all over the United States for the perfect pet. I love this site because it give people the opportunity to search for a specific type or breed of animal that they want, which they may not have been able to find at a local shelter. I believe that this website access gives people more options, and less reason to buy from a breeder or worse, petshop. You can search for a pet, the size, breed, age gender and location and many results will pop up of animals waited to be adopted! It also has tricks for pet training, and links to other animal friendly websites. I love this website because it gives many shelter animals a much bigger chance at getting adopted, because now so many more people can see them!  www.petfinder.com

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