Did you know that to make one fur coat you must kill at least fifty-five wild mink, thirty-five ranched mink, forty sables, eleven lynx, eighteen red foxes, eleven silver foxes, one hundred chinchillas, thirty rex rabbits, nine beavers, thirty muskrats, fifteen bobcats, twenty-five skunks, fourteen otters, one hundred twenty-five ermines, thirty possums, one hundred squirrels, or twenty-seven raccoons?

Every winter season, fur trade spends millions of dollars trying to glamorize fur coats and accessories and to mask the real price of fur: the pain, mutilation, and death for millions of animals.  Ranch-raised foxes are kept in cages only 2.5 feet square (minks in cages 1-foot-by-3-feet), with up to four animals per cage.  Animals can languish in traps for days. Up to 1 out of every 4 trapped animals escapes by chewing off his or her own feet, only to die later from blood loss, fever, gangrene, or predation. 

  Every year, thousands of dogs, cats, raptors, and other so-called "trash" animals (including endangered species like the bald eagle) are crippled or killed by traps.  To kill the animals without damaging their fur, trappers usually strangle, beat, or stomp them to death. Animals on fur farms may be gassed, electrocuted, poisoned with strychnine, or have their necks snapped. These methods are not 100 percent effective and some animals "wake up" while being skinned. 

                     Here are all the facts you need to know on this barbaric trade:

More than 50 million animals are violently killed for use in fashion every year.

 Methods used to kill animals for their fur include gassing, electrocution, and neck breaking.

Fur-bearing animals are also caught and killed in barbaric body-gripping traps.

Neither fur nor fur trim is a by-product of the meat industry.

Rabbit fur is often falsely identified as a by-product of meat production. The truth is, few rabbit skins are obtained from slaughterhouses, which more often dispose of the undesirable pelts of rabbits bred to make meat.

Fur comes from animals that are factory-farmed or trapped purely for fashion. The fur trim market is an equal, if not greater, threat to animals than is the making of fur coats. Fur trim is not what’s “left over” from making full-length fur coats. Thousands of animals are killed simply to provide trimming effects for fashion. Even purchasing the tiniest bit of fur trim supports the cruel fur industry. Garment or accessory labels cannot always be relied upon to accurately identify the type of animal fur used in an item. If you’re not sure, DONT BUY!

Cat and dog fur can enter the Australian market illegally and undetected and be sold as fur trim. While there is a ban on the import of domestic dog and cat fur, the animal’s fur may be mislabelled.   Fur “farms” or “ranches” are not humane alternatives to trapping. 
These are just terms used by the fur industry to describe confinement facilities in which fur-bearing animals are caged and killed. Currently, there are no federal laws providing protection for the millions of animals held in these factory-like farms.
                                                         
Seals are still being clubbed and brutally slain for their fur. The Canadian seal hunt is the world’s largest remaining commercial slaughter of marine mammal; close to a million harp seals were authorized to be killed between 2003 and 2005. The use of seal fur in fashion contributes to this massacre.

Although historically, the fur trade played a role in the development of the economy in many countries, tradition never justifies abuse. There are many cultural practices once seen as acceptable that are now viewed as horrific relics of a more brutal time.

The fur industry is a threat to our environment and wildlife, contributing to higher energy costs, pollution, land destruction, and reductions in populations of wild animals, including endangered and threatened species that may be accidentally trapped and killed.   
                                                   

Just remember this simple rule: Compassion is always in fashion. Choosing to not wear fur or fur trim is simple — and saves animals' lives.