@suzanagartner
San Francisco became the first major city in the U.S. to ban the sale of fur! With San Francisco’s new law, it will soon become illegal for apparel companies to sell fur beginning in January 2020. The world should follow suit and implement similar animal-friendly ordinances to reduce the pain and suffering of animals. Every year, approximately 50 million animals are murdered in inhumane ways merely for the production and sale of fur. For example, foxes, rabbits, minks, and many other animals are kept in small, crammed, filthy, and extremely horrific conditions to suffer and await execution by method of electrocution, gassing, drowning, and strangulation just to fill the shelves of retail stores. In some jurisdictions in China, it has even been documented that many fur producers skin dogs and cats alive just for their fur. It has been revealed that these inhumanly acquired pelts are then mislabelled and snuck into the European markets.
Animal welfare concerns aside, there are many environmental problems that arise from the production and sale of animal fur. The chemicals required for production of fur have been noted by governmental agencies across the globe as an “ecological nightmare”. These chemicals contribute as one of the major polluters and are extremely toxic to life and have been shown to kill water life in rivers and streams surrounding fur manufacturing plants.
Although three cities in the U.S have ordinances banning the sale of fur, more cities will follow. As well, many fashion houses already refuse to be any part of this cruel industry to begin with. For instance, Michael Kors, Stella McCartney, Giorgio Armani, Donatella Versace, H & M, Calvin Klein, Tom Ford, and many more retailers have joined the fur-free fashion momentum. Gucci has also just recently joined the modern-age by abandoning the cruel industry of fur trade.
With San Francisco’s victory on abandoning this cruel and outdated industry of fur-trade, society is entering a modern era; a time when people do not cause the pain and suffering of innocent animals for barbaric and obsolete luxuries of the past. Fur is not in fashion.