Cat and Dog fur from China

It is estimated that more than two million cats and dogs  are brutally slaughtered each year in China alone to supply the main markets in Europe and Russia.

To kill a dog, the butcher ties a metal wire around its neck, then stabs the dog in the groin area. The butcher then skins the dog,  often while the dog still lives. 

Often these dogs are so tamed and used to humans, that they wag their tails to these people while they tied them to a post, fence or stick on the ground, before starting to torture the animal.

If the dogs bleed to dead or they choke to dead with the metal wire, they are "lucky" not to be been skinned alive. 

The dogs cries and screams are heard by other dogs awaiting the same horrific fate.  Sometimes they are tied by a rope in the middle of the street and with a small knife, start to cut and pull off the skin of the back legs.

The short-haired cats and the German shepherd dogs are the mist valuable to the breeders.

Cats  have a terrible death too.  Butchers hang cats to kill them.  Sometimes, they hang the cats, then pour water into their open mouths until the cats drown. Many cats are stolen from homes and just as the dogs, often wear collars with tags on them... others are breed in extremely poor conditions.

When they transport the cats and dogs, the poor animals are all crowded into small wooden boxes, or metallic cages, without food, nor water and thrown one on top of each other. Upon arrival to their final destination, they are thrown from the top of buses or vans to the ground, breaking the cats and dogs legs  and tails and causing them severe injuries and wounds.

But this doesn't happen in China only: Recently some HSI investigators, discovered two cat and dog breeders in Belgium, where rounded street cats and dogs ended up and were kept at animal farms where they are slaughtered for their fur.

Often they were skinned alive to prevent the furs losing their condition after the animals' death.

Belgium became the fifth EU member state in 2004 to introduce an import ban on cat and dog fur, but the sale of such products remains legal in the rest of the EU.

Dog and cat fur may be labeled by the foreign manufacturers as the following:

Small animal figurines are often made with dog or cat fur, but are misrepresented by the manufacturers as being of rabbit fur obtained as a by-product of the food industry in China.

The Dog and Cat Protection Act of 2000 prohibits imports or exports of dog or cat fur containing products into or out of the United States

* If a review of the import documents and/or initial examination of a shipment indicates that an importation may contain dog or cat fur, Customs will send samples of the shipment to a laboratory for analysis to determine the species of the fur.

* Violators of the Act will be fined up to $10,000 for each item containing dog or cat fur.

* A reward of $500 will be offered for any information leading to the successful prosecution for violations of the Act.

If you are in the States, and would like to report a possible violation of the Dog and Cat Protection Act of 2000, please contact the Commercial Enforcement Branch of Trade Programs, Office of Field Operations of the United States Customs Service at (202) 344-1320.