Your Say

03/07/2007

Chinese Snub EU Cat and Dog Fur Ban

Chinese Government won't promise to stop barbaric fur trade despite EU ban.

China has sneered at the EU cat and dog fur ban approved unanimously at the European Parliament in Strasbourg recently, according to Conservative MEP for Wales Jonathan Evans.

Millions of people across Europe disgusted by reports of the horrific slaughter of these animals signed petitions, sent emails and wrote letters during an eight year campaign, supported tirelessly by Mr Evans and his colleagues.

The ban on cat and dog fur imports, exports and trade will become law in all 27 Member States by the end of next year and is predicted to save the lives of more than two million cats and dogs every year in China.

Animal welfare charities said the EU ban sent a clear message to the Chinese government, but Vice Director-General of the State Forestry Administration Department in China, Mr Wang Wei, stated that the decision to close the EU's borders to these products was Europe's business and he could not guarantee the trade could stop in China.

Despite earlier reassurances that China abhorred the practice and looked forward to Europe introducing a comprehensive ban, he stated that existing laws allow the captive breeding of animals, that China is different from other countries as wildlife products are used in traditional Chinese medicines and that they have moved from using wildlife to captive resources for this purpose.

It was also stated that skinning animals alive is not a common practice in China. Mr Evans said:
"These remarks are unhelpful and unsatisfactory. Clearly we have touched a raw nerve with the Chinese Government on this issue and despite the successful implementation of our EU ban, there remains much work to do to convince the Chinese to put a stop to this horrific business once and for all.

"Slaughter of these animals is barbaric, with cats strangled outside their cages as other cats look on and dogs noosed with metal wires are slashed across the groin until they bleed to death as the wire noose cuts into their throat."

Pelts used from these tortured creatures have appeared in EU stores as full-length coats, homeopathic arthritis aids, hair bows for children, toy cat figurines and linings for boots and gloves.

Notes to Editors:

1.Jonathan Evans has campaigned over the last eight years to halt the import, export and trade in cat and dog fur in the EU.

2. In 2003 Humane Society International and Conservative MEPs revealed video evidence showing that the trade in cat skins is flourishing underground in Belgium. Further testing of some of these products revealed the dangerous toxic levels of chromium contained in novelty cat & dog figurines and toys.  In December 2003, 346 MEPs – an actual majority - backed a Declaration in the European Parliament supporting a ban.  The President of the European Parliament then instructed the Commission to draft legislation outlawing the practice, to reflect the will of the Parliament.

3. In March 2005, Heather Mills McCartney, landmine activist and charity campaigner, and Rick Wakeman, lead musician from the rock group 'Yes', attended a press conference in the European Parliament in Brussels to voice their support for a ban across the European Union of cat and dog fur. 

5. In a TV interview last year, Sir Paul McCartney called for a boycott on Chinese fur products and on the Beijing Olympics until China bans this evil trade of skinning animals alive.

6. It is estimated that more than two million animals are brutally slaughtered each year in China alone to supply the main markets in Europe and Russia.  The furs and skins are made into coats, fur trim for gloves, boot-linings, cat and dog figurines and used in countless other ways.  There is clearly a fraudulent and illegal aspect to this trade as consumers are duped into buying what they believe to be faux fur or fur from wild animals, as merchants make up mythical names on labels, or dye the fur to make it look like faux-fur.

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