31 of Britain's Biggest Stars Call for a UK Fur Ban

31 of Britain’s Biggest Stars Call for a UK Fur Ban

Posted by Amy on March 13, 2018 | Permalink

Prime Minister Theresa May has received a letter from 31 of Britain’s biggest stars urging her to introduce a UK ban on animal-fur imports.

The celebrities, including Judi Dench, Andy Murray, Ricky Gervais, and Twiggy, signed the open letter to show their support for the #FurFreeBritain campaign that PETA is running alongside other animal rights groups.

Fur farming has been illegal in the UK since 2000, but since then, Britain has imported fur worth over £650 million from countries such as China and Poland, where animals are typically bred in appalling conditions on fur farms.

The celebrity support comes as a UK Government and Parliament petition approaches its 23 March deadline and nears the target of 100,000 signatures required to trigger a parliamentary debate on the UK fur trade.

“We are delighted that so many of the UK’s best-loved celebrities have spoken out in favour of a Fur Free Britain,” says a campaign spokesperson. “Their words echo the calls from the vast majority of the British public who want to see an end to animal fur being imported onto our shores.”

More than 100 million animals suffer each year for the global fur trade, most of them reared in terrible conditions on fur farms. Naturally wide-ranging species such as raccoon dogs, minks, and foxes are subjected to physical and psychological torment in small, barren cages for their entire lives before being killed by gassing or electrocution and then skinned. Wild animals caught for their fur, such as coyotes, fare little better – they languish in agony in cruel traps for hours or even days before being killed.

Although fur farming is outlawed in the UK and EU regulations ban imports of fur from domesticated cats and dogs and from commercial seal hunts, Britain still imports and sells the fur of a variety of other species, including foxes, rabbits, minks, coyotes, raccoon dogs, and chinchillas.

As a member of the European Single Market, under rules relating to the free movement of goods, the UK is not currently at liberty to ban imports of animal fur, which is produced in several European countries. But Brexit gives the government the freedom to reflect the public’s distaste for all real fur and fully close our borders to this cruel and archaic trade.

What Can You Do?

The campaign is calling on the government to make the UK a fur-free zone by extending the existing bans on imports of cat, dog, and seal fur to all fur-bearing species. Please join us in calling for a #FurFreeBritain: