Brits Think Selling Fur Is Unethical, Outdated, and Cruel – so Why Is House of Fraser Still Doing It?
A new YouGov opinion poll commissioned by animal protection charity Humane Society International/UK reveals that the vast majority of British people never wear real animal fur and support a ban on UK fur imports and sales. Only 3% said they would wear the cruelly obtained material.
When respondents were asked which terms they would associate with brands that sell fur, “unethical”, “outdated”, “cruel”, and “out of touch” came out on top.
The Barbaric Fur Trade
The results come as no surprise. Numerous shocking investigations of fur farms across many fur-producing countries have repeatedly documented atrocities, including animals with eye infections, sores on their feet from the filthy wire cages, missing legs, and festering, untreated open wounds – some so deep that their brains are visible. Babies are kept in cages with the rotting corpses of their mothers, and animals exhibit neurotic behaviour as a result of psychological damage.
Around 85% of the fur sold today comes from such facilities, where minks, foxes, and other animals are locked up for their entire lives before being violently killed for their skin by electrocution, bludgeoning, or other cruel methods.
Other animals – like coyotes, whose fur is used to trim Canada Goose coats – are caught in steel traps in the woods and left to languish for days before being shot, stamped on, or bludgeoned to death.
#FurFreeBritain
The production of fur was rightly banned in the UK in 2000, and steel-jaw trapping was prohibited long before that. So clearly, permitting the sale of coats, pom-poms, and other frivolous fashion items made with fur obtained by killing factory-farmed or trapped animals flies in the face of the values held by almost all British people. That’s why PETA and other animal protection groups are calling for a ban on fur imports and sales.
Join us in supporting the #FurFreeBritain campaign – ask your MP to urge the government to bring forward this important legislation.
We’re also calling on the few remaining retailers that still peddle bloody furs to do the right thing and stop trying to profit from this hideous trade.
Designers such as Calvin Klein, Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, and Tommy Hilfiger have pledged never to use fur in their collections. The majority of high-street and online stores – including Topshop, AllSaints, and ASOS – are also fur-free. And the British public is clear in its denunciation of fur. Yet last year, House of Fraser made a bizarre U-turn and began selling fur again.
Call On House of Fraser to Drop Fur
It’s simple: the production of all fur – no matter which country it originated in or what “ethical” claims are made on the label it’s branded with – involves extreme suffering and a painful death for animals.
Send Mike Ashley, CEO of Frasers Group (which owns House of Fraser), a message urging him to reinstate the department store’s no-fur policy immediately. British consumers have made their views clear – selling fur is cruel and outdated and must be banned.
