“I love animals and would NEVER wear real fur-
faux fur should be safe, right?”
Shockingly… no. There are many reports out there that claim that most garments claiming to be made of “faux fur” actually tested positive for dog fur. In one test, the Humane Society of the United States tested 25 different jackets and of that, 24 of them were not labeled correctly. 3 of them came from a domesticated type of dog, twenty came from a type of raccoon dog that is native to the Asian and northern European forests, and one of them was made from wolf fur. These “faux fur” products are no safer for consumers to use than actual fur coats. What is the difference, you ask? How do they get away with this?
Since the products are less than $150, no label is required to inform the public that it is made of actual fur. Most of these products came from China. There is a thriving dog- and cat-fur industry in Asia. Most of this fur is falsely labeled as “rabbit fur” or simply not labeled at all. Dog and cat skin is made into fur coats, fur figurines, and leather shoes, which are sold to unsuspecting consumers in America. Outraged? So am I. I have compiled a list of stores and brand names that take advantage of this loophole. Personally, I don’t even wear fake fur, but I want to educate consumers so they make an informed decision while shopping.
Department Stores that sell (sold) these products include: Macy’s, Burlington Coat Factory , J.C. Penney, Nordstroms, Younkers
Designers/ Brands include Sean John, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Andrew Marc’s MARC New York label, Marc Jacobs
Miss Leppert, a spokeswoman of the HSUS reported that “There is no suggestion that the retailers knew Chinese
suppliers were substituting dog pelts for fake and other types of fur. But they should know this. They are not properly policing
themselves on this issue. Millions of these animals are coming out of China and being passed off under the wrong labels all round the world. There is a lot more the big retailers could be doing. They have a responsibility for the products they bring to market.”
On a good note, both Tommy Hilfiger and Nordstom tried to handle this new information the best way they could. Hilfiger stopped selling the fur-trimmed coats immediately and said that they would look into the matter because they are concerned with the findings. While, Nordstrom called 62 of its customers who had bought waistcoats trimmed with dog fur and offered them a full refund.
However, an executive of Andrew Marc, disputed the HSUS findings and insisted that all fur on his coats labeled as raccoon contains “only farm-bred raccoon fur from Finland”… Ummm that still isn’t faux fur in my book!
Retail giants Macy’s and J.C. Penney were also discovered selling coats with raccoon dog fur labeled as raccoon. J.C. Penney initially removed the offending garments from its stores — but eventually had employees scratch out the ’raccoon’ label with black magic marker and put the coats back on the shelves. Macy’s, however immediately pulled the items from its shelves.
Burlington Coat Factory also pulled some coats with mislabeled fur from their shelves. Rap artist Sean “Diddy” Combs stopped producing and selling coats from his Sean John line that had raccoon dog fur, and rapper Jay-Z pulled coats with raccoon dog from his Rocawear label.
Another fun fact: Importing domestic dog and cat fur was outlawed in the United States in 2000. Intentionally importing and selling dog fur is a federal crime punishable by a $10,000 fine for each violation.
Don’t forget UGG boots. Yes, they are made from wool and (usually) the sheep are alive and shaved down humanely- however- after much investigation, it was proven that UGG boots are made from sheep that have been discarded because their wool isn’t good enough to sell. These animals are kept in awful conditions and, ultimately, slaughtered in very inhumane ways. I am NOT advocating that you go and buy the knock-offs though… Those shoes are made from the same raccoon-dog fur that I talked about above. These animals are beaten and skinned alive, after living their lives in tiny cages.
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Click here for a list of companies that still test their products on animals
Read more at: http://articles.cnn.com/2007-02-07/politics/dog.fur_1_dog-fur-fur-products-raccoon-dogs?_s=PM:POLITICS
http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/tags/Uggs/default.aspx