Posted on 12/17/2005 6:07:46 PM PST by blam
Cheaper than mink or sable - fur coats made from dogs that were skinned alive
By Katy Duke and Elizabeth Day
(Filed: 18/12/2005)
It looks like the must-have item in every glamorous woman's winter wardrobe: a sleek, black fur coat dripping with opulence.
But despite the seductive appearance, the coat is not mink or sable. Instead, it has been manufactured from dog fur - possibly from an animal that was drugged and skinned alive to preserve the fur's freshness.
Heather Mills-McCartney with a rug made from cats' pelts Similar coats are selling rapidly in fashion boutiques across Europe.
An undercover investigation has revealed a booming trade in dog fur coats from eastern Europe, some of which are likely to be on sale in Britain. The fur, which comes from both strays and captured pets, is often re-labelled to disguise its origins before being stitched into coats and re-dyed. This Bulgarian fur, for instance, was incorrectly passed off as "Korean Wolf".
Unlike a mink, which can cost £10,000, a top-price coat made from dog pelt may sell in markets of western Europe for around £400.
The investigation by a German television documentary crew focused on Bulgaria, where it found that stray dogs were routinely rounded up by licensed trappers and delivered to fur factories.
Anita Singh, a campaign co-ordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Britain, said that there were also reports of pets being snatched for their fur. "They tend to be bigger dogs like German shepherds or golden retrievers," she said. "It is important for people to realise that when they buy fur it is nearly impossible to tell whether real dog or cat has been used unless it undergoes extensive DNA testing.
"You can find dog fur in shopping centres in Britain labelled as something else. It is a disgusting industry and our advice is simply to avoid all types of fur."
It is not illegal to trade in dog and cat fur in Britain, although bans have been imposed in the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Italy, France and Australia.
The British Fur Trade Association, which represents the fur industry, said none of its members knowingly used dog fur, and it had introduced a labelling system to try to guard against its use.
Most furs - such as mink, fox, seal or rabbit - have their own classification so it is possible to see how much is imported and exported. Fur that falls under the "other fur" category, however, does not have to be listed by species and could include dog or cat fur.
Historically, the British have been unwilling to buy dog fur. In the children's book, 101 Dalmatians, written by Dodie Smith in 1948, the villainous Cruella de Vil tries to steal dalmatian puppies to make herself a unique spotted coat.
Yordanka Zrcheva, the president of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Animals, went undercover for a German television documentary to demonstrate the extent of the problem.
Miss Zrcheva said that the country, which is hoping to join the European Union in just over a year, produced "tens of thousands" of dog pelts to sell across Europe.
"There is a massive industry based on the systematic killing of dogs," she said. "There are dog fur factories all over Bulgaria, and they produce all sorts of items, like fur coats, leather shoes and bags made from dogs and so on."
According to Rumi Becker, a spokesman for the Doctors for Animals group which works for the protection of Bulgaria's stray dogs, the authorities are unwilling to clamp down because the industry is "big business".
In Bulgaria the average salary is around £35 a month, while a teacher makes about £80 a month and a doctor £100. One fur coat can be sold inside the country for £200 and more than double that abroad.
"It is hard to collate exact numbers but around 10,000 dogs are collected and killed in Sofia alone every year, often shipped straight to fur factories from dog pounds and animal shelters," said Dr Becker.
"The so-called fur lords who run the factories are farming the dogs on the street without having to pay any support. They don't have to feed or house them or anything except round them up and then skin them.
"I bought a black and white coat labelled Korean Wolf. I asked if it was made with street dog fur, and the vendor said it was, but that I should keep my voice down. I was pretending to be a dealer, and asked if it would be possible to have more. She told me she had 750 in a storeroom in Sofia."
Last week, the anti-fur campaigner Heather Mills McCartney urged the European Union to ban the trade in cat and dog fur, citing the example of the Czech Republic.
"Domestic cats are stolen off the streets, and we're talking about 2,000 to 3,000 just in the Czech Republic, not in the whole of Europe," she said.
How do they keep the pelts in such nice shape with strays?
If you go out on any street here in the US, and look at a stray dogs coat, its usually in really bad shape. Insect infestations and skin diseases being very common. Dogs in urban environments almost always seem to have these issues.
I wonder how these dog fur traders get around these problems with the strays?
Actually , I think there are some problems with the story here......Just my opinion.
Its wearer was tipped off when a pack of dogs ran up and sniffed her butt.
Can we start accusing the EU of torture now and be done with the abu Ghraib rants? I don't think we skinned any terrorists.
Or possibly the journalist writing this article is just pulling this speculation out his @$$ and doesn't have a clue what he is writing about. Ever!
Let me state outright that I'm no fan of fur coats in general -- something not quite right about killing stuff just for fur and fashion.
But the premise of this article is somewhat ... unusual. "Skinning them alive to maintain freshness" is a bit beyond belief: looks to me like they're making something up to make it sound worse than it really is. (And they're not just taking pets off the streets, either -- there'd be no market for multi-breed coats.)
You are spot on, and also strays in eastern Europe would be in far worse condition than American strays, so there goes the flawless gleaming coat.
Bwuahahaha. More 'fake but accurate' BS. Ya, they put cows through meat grinders alive to preserve the freshness too. I'll give the hippie twats a good score for creativity though, oh wait, NOT.
Hope this isn't true. A dog is like a two-year-old. If someone skinned my dog I'd hunt them down and ...
Similar news from different new sources exist.
http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&scoring=d&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=dog+skinned+alive&btnG=Search+News
I think PETA manufactured this story.
Skinning it two minutes after it's dead is still pretty fresh. How inhumane and inexcusable.
Criticize Eastern Europe if you must, but their women used to be great weight lifters.
Exactly, this story is planted by animal rights groups to try to win support for their cause.
Gee! Do you think PETA may use the pelts from the animals that they dump after killing them early?
I've seen fur jackets that I thought might be dog fur. They had the same hand as the feel of a dog's coat, and they had "made in Korea" or "made in China" labels on them, too. I steered well clear of them.
I don't see how anyone could possibly mistake a sable or mink for dog or cat fur. Qualitatively it's just not in the same ballpark.
Not buying the idea that these are stray dogs. As another poster observed, a stray dog does not have a good coat. But it's very easy to believe that dogs with luxuriant coats would get stolen for this. Dogs are stolen all the time.
Sheesh, if these people would just come over to my house after I vacuum, I'd give them all the dog fur they could possibly want. . .
My sentiments exactly , Its bullshit, They are trying to stir up emotions with this skinned alive crap. In reality a dog is no different than a cow you use to make your shoes or belt with. All are animal products. Because so many Americans keep dogs for pets they get all excited when certain countries eat them or use their skin.Personally I wouldnt use dog fur because I have similar feelings, but if a Korean is hungry then fine eat the dog, if a Brit is cold put on the dog. pun intended.
Yep, my mom used to make moccasins out of rabbit skins and it wasn't easy getting the skins ready for sewing into the footwear! Skinning something alive makes no sense what so ever and this is just propaganda.
I see at least 14 separate pelts in the picture with identical color balance. Sorry, but this story is BS. If they're strays, they would have to go through an incredible amount of cats to achieve this. I'm tempted to crop them out and check the color curves of each one. There is no way this isn't manufactured, unless someone actually bleached the pelts to 100% white and then airbrushed them to make them look the same (yeah, right). Totally manufactured is right.
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