The Evil Fur Trade

[Patricia Betty]

I hate the fur trade and I want to make the suffering stop for 50 million animals each year that are murdered brutally because they have a fur coat that someone else wants. Please sign my petition on Change.org to get Ebay leaders to ban the sale of new and vintage fur on Ebay's sites worldwide The link is  http://www.change.org/petitions/fur-sales-on-ebay

[Patricia Betty]

http://www.change.org/petitions/fur-sales-on-ebay

[Patricia Betty]

 please sign to ask Ebay to ban all sales of real fur

[Siddharth Iyer]

There isn't anything graphic in those videos. It is sad though, seeing them in cages and them trying pathetically to get away at the sight of people. Share it by all means. I hope it helps!

[Patricia Betty]

Please excuse me if I dont watch your video. I have problems sleeping nights with what I have already seen. If its ok with you I would like to post the links on Twitter Is it ok to mention your name there also?

[Patricia Betty]

Thanks for that Siddharth. I agree with all you have said and I believe it to be the absolute truth. I have been an animal activist for 20 years with a partisan interest in stopping the fur trade. I know all fur farms are animal versions of Auswich and I only mention China because most of western fur comes from there. It breaks my heart to see the pathetic little scraps that are made into trinkets and even toys for cats. Quite possibly the toy itself is cat fur. Then the real fur coats with about 50 poor tortured creatures going to make just one vile coat. I am not saying other fur farms are better There is no such thing as an acceptable fur farm. Have you seen the insulting and pathetic videos the European fur cartels have made to try to get people to buy their disgusting products?  

You are missing the point if you think I am just against Chinese farms. We are all up against an enormous amount of money and the pro-fur lobbyists will say anything to pedal their wares. It is a huge problem and one which will not be solved overnight. I am just trying to put one nail in the coffin of the trade by getting fur banned on Ebay. I am not a racist and I hate all animal cruelty but as I tried to explain before to Roger, I cannot take on abbatoirs & everything else so I focus on the fur trade and how it affects the UK  

[Siddharth Iyer]

Here is a video I took inside a fur farm in Finland. This was in October and all these foxes have been slaughtered already and a new batch of pups have taken their place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6G9mS5jF5g&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ggDgtxVcU8&feature=related

These farms had an open day and allowed visitors to have a look inside. The open day was obviously an attempt to get public to accept fur farming just as they have accepted other equally horric institutions of animal abuse. I had been campaigning against fur farming, so I went there to see the horror first hand. I can assure you, no fur farm can ever be humane or better than any other. Just like every form of animal exploitation, these animals are property and everything from their cages, their lives, the way they are bred and what they eat is based on how much profit they will generate. The foxes were intentionally made obese in the first few months for a few extra inches of fur. It was pathetic to see how afraid they were of people. The fur farmers maintained that these foxes were bred for generations and had lost their wild instincts. It was obvious that these animals were just wild as ever and trembled in fear at the sight of us. The owner of the farm actually told us to tell the public that fur farms are good so that more people would buy their fur. This would give them enough money to get better cages and make it more comfortable for the animals. That, they said, was about the only difference we could make.

In Finland, like most countries, it's a criminal offence to lock dogs and cats in tiny cages. Yet, 3500 of these young pups were confined for their entire lives and killed for profit. We shouldn't be talking about particular instances of abuse in certain fur farms and talk about ending them all.

Maybe the petition should explain fur farming in general and not mention a particular nation? I think that's important as it tells people that there are no "good" countries for fur farming and the whole institution needs to be abolished.

[Patricia Betty]

Hello Roger It would seem I am forced to be scrupulously PC as it would seem you are a bit of a nit-picker. First, I didn’t say you had called me racist, I said I was offended that you said my blog was racist, and that I am singling out China when there is just as much animal cruelty in Europe. You are right, and perhaps I'd better take this opportunity to mention the evil Scandinavian fur trade and the cruel animal trapping in Canada, just in case you feel I have been unfair to other evil groups who torture animals for their fur.

This started out as a simple request on an animal loving forum where I thought I would get a sympathetic response and a few signatures for my petition. How wrong I was, and I find once again, I am defending myself only this time it isn’t from pro-fur cartels. It is very clever of you to use words like speciesist and to mention Gary Yourrofsky, although I can't claim that I know this individual, and to bring in slaughter houses etc., the thing is, that while I agree, and I totally abhor ALL animal cruelty, I am just one person and my crusade at the moment is to get all fur sales banned on Ebay.

What matters in this particular campaign is that we hurt this brutal trade, and you are completely missing the point by widening the subject of animal torture. We have got off on the wrong foot and I don’t want to spend my time explaining things that are really quite obvious, so let me say this once and for all. I really hate those who skin animals for fashion; I hate those who wear fur knowing what has happened to the animals on fur farms. I hate the pro-fur cartels who gloss over the cruelty and try to make this vile product appear glamorous. It matters not to me which country is producing fur. There are many hundreds of people selling furs on Ebay, and it would be a big victory in a huge war if we could stop these people pedalling death on Ebay sites worldwide.

Is this enough of an explanation? I don’t want to spend my time arguing, I would like us to be on the same side. You have ruffled my feathers because I was completely taken by surprise by your original comments.  

[Patricia Betty]

Why do some people mange to find racism in every other word. I am not a racist and I find it offensive that you would even think my blog is racist. I mention Chinese fur farms because that is where most western fur comes from. There are few human rights in China and no animal rights whatsoever. Animals are beaten with clubs on Chinese farms, they have their paws hacked off to make skinning them easier, then they are left broken and whimpering until a brutal furfarm worker rips them open with a flensing knife and shuffles them out of their skin. What is remotely racist about that? I am against the fur trade which is brutal and unforgiving. I am not against the Chinese people, in fact I belong to groups where brave Chinese animal rights activists are trying to get a better deal for the animals that are unfortunate enough to live there. I cant help it if you are confused and if you dont want to sign my petition, I guess I'll get over it. I cannot believe that as a new member of an animal rights forum I am being accused of racism in my first post.   

[Patricia Betty]

Warning about the tagged video I have just posted It is harrowing viewing and not for the squeamish