Inside the Fur Industry: Animal Factories

Do you know how many animlas are killed to make one fur coat???
Calf- 6-8 ; Puma- 6-8
Foal- 6-8 ;Seal- 6-10
Lynx- 8-12 ;Badger- 10-12

Otter- 10-12 ;Fox- 10-20

Ocelot- 12-18 ;Dog- 15-20

Bobcat- 16-22 ; Kangroo- 20-30

Domestic cat-20-30 ; Lamb- 25-45

Coyute- 26-34 ; Racoon- 30-40

Mink30-70 ; Rabbit- 30-40

Olecat- 45-55 ; Marten- 50-60

Sable- 60-70 ; Skunk- 60-70

Chinchilla- 30-200 ; Squirrel- 200-400

Source:Rauchwarenhandbuch, GErmany
(1) American Veterinary Medical Association Panel, Vol. 218, No. 5, March 1, 2001, "2000 Report of the AVMA Panel on Killing", The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, pp. 669-696)

Eighty-five percent of the fur industry’s skins come from animals living captive in fur factory farms.(1) These farms can hold thousands of animals, and their farming practices are remarkably uniform around the globe. As with other intensive-confinement animal farms, the methods used in fur factory farms are designed to maximize profits, always at the expense of the animals.

This cruel practice is on the rise and millions of furry little friends are fashion victims.

Life on the ‘Ranch’

To cut costs, fur farmers pack animals into small cages, preventing them from taking more than a few steps back and forth. This crowding and confinement is distressing.

The anguish and frustration of life in a cage leads to self-mutilate—biting at their skin, tails, and feet—and frantically pace and circle endlessly.

Minks, Foxes, raccoons, and other animals suffer just as much and have been found to cannibalize their cagemates in response to their crowded confinement.

Fox chewed its leg

• Animals in fur factory farms are fed meat byproducts considered unfit for human consumption.
• Water is provided by a nipple system, which often freezes in the winter or might fail because of human error.

Painful and Short Lives

The most commonly farmed fur-bearing animals are minks, followed by foxes. Chinchillas, lynxes, and even hamsters are also farmed for their fur.(2) Seventy-three percent of fur farms are in Europe, 12 percent are in North America, and the rest are dispersed throughout the world, in countries such as Argentina, China, and Russia.(3)

Mink farmers usually breed female minks once a year. There are about three or four surviving kittens in each litter, and they are killed when they are about 6 months old, depending on what country they are in, after the first hard freeze. Minks used for breeding are kept for four to five years

The animals—who are housed in unbearably small cages—live with fear, stress, disease, parasites, and other physical and psychological hardships, all for the sake of an unnecessary global industry that makes billions of dollars annually.
Rabbits are slaughtered by the millions for meat, particularly in China, Italy, and Spain. Once considered a mere byproduct of this consumption, the rabbit-fur industry demands the thicker pelt of an older animal (rabbits raised for meat are killed at the age of 10 to 12 weeks).(5) The United Nations reports that countries such as France are killing as many as 70 million rabbits a year for fur, which is used in clothing, as lures in flyfishing, and for trim on craft items.

Death of these animals is a horror story.

Even death does not come easy on a fur farm. Ranchers have devised hideous methods of killing—methods which do not “damage” the animals’ pelts: They use slaughter methods that keep the pelts intact but that can result in extreme suffering for the animals.

Poison

Small animals may be crammed into boxes and poisoned with hot, unfiltered engine exhaust from a truck. Engine exhaust is not always lethal, and some animals wake up while they are being skinned.

Pain
Cervical disclocation (neck breaking) is another technique routinely used by the fur industry while the animal is conscious, causing suffocation, and is also inhumane and cruel. The technique must only be used by “individuals with a demonstrated high degree of technical competency” and only on certain poultry and other small animals below a certain weight. Even with a loss of consciousness this method is not instantaneous with the animal languishing for at least 20 seconds.

Anal and genital electrocution

Larger animals have clamps attached to or rods forced into their mouths and rods are forced into their anuses, and they are painfully electrocuted.

Anal and genital electrocution are painful and traumatic to the animal, causing painful seizures to the heart.

Other animals are poisoned with strychnine, which suffocates them by paralyzing their muscles with painful, rigid cramps. Gassing, decompression chambers, and neck-breaking are other common slaughter methods in fur factory farms.

Imagine being skinned alive.........................................................

This poor tortured and skinned alive raccoon dog still had enough strength to lift his or her head and look up, it was still breathing.It managed to walk for help, but who would help it.

Then the skinned raccoon dog falls back down with legs and head twitching.

No Regulatory Protection

There are no regulations protecting animals on fur ranches.
Cages are typically kept in open sheds that provide little protection from wind, cold, or heat. In the winter, animals often have to endure sub-zero temperatures.

Summers are particularly hard on minks because they lack the ability to cool their bodies without bathing in water.

Recognizing the cruelty inherent in the fur factory farming system, Austria and the United Kingdom have banned fur farms.

Given that the American government does not regulate fur farming and that the states do not force fur ranchers to comply with existing cruelty statutes, severe abuses occur.

It is not rare, for instance, to have animals lying in their fecal matter or to have animals with toes frozen to cold wire mesh during winter. And it's often more economical for ranchers to hope sick animals will survive rather than to hire a veterinarian to care for them.

Environmental Toll

Formaldehyde, chromium, and other dangerous chemicals are used in the processing of furs, and have catastrophic effects when this runoff leaks from fur farms into rivers or streams. In 1991, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined six New Jersey fur processors $2.2 million as a result of the pollution they caused. The EPA claims that the waste from fur processing plants "may cause respiratory problems, and are listed as possible carcinogens." Fur industry lobbyists are even working in state legislatures for more lenient water pollution laws, a chilling sign that their product can hardly be considered "natural."
While the fur industry promotes its product as a "natural" fabric from a "renewable resource," nothing could be further from the truth. Gregory H. Smith, an engineer with the Ford Motor Company, reported that

the amount of energy expended to manufacture a fur coat from trapped animals was nearly four times the amount needed to manufacture a fake fur coat, and that the amount of energy expended to manufacture a fur coat from ranched animals -- after calculating the production of feed, cages, skinning, pelt drying, processing, and transportation -- was 66 times the amount needed for a fake fur.