Killing Dogs and Cats for Fur!?

just watched larry king tonight and the show was about the chinese dog and cat fur trade. apparently they skin the animals alive as to not damage the coat. the peta website has the whole video of a german shepard being skinned alive. i only watched the sanitized version on CNN but that alone made me sick to my stomach.

http://www.hsus.org/

thats the american humane society website where its on the front page. apparently they just passed a law in the US banning cat and dog fur trade. who in the world would even buy something like that? there are some really sick people in this world.

:scowl: :sick2: :sick2: :shakehead

tygger said:

there are some really sick people in this world.

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You got that right! and it's not only dog and cat fur, it's bear claws, tiger paws, seal fur, shark fins, monkey brains, frog legs...

This stuff makes me :green:

...BTW, what's the difference between that and boiling a lobster alive?

OMG! Don't EVEN get me started. I'm furious.

Urgh! :shakehead

My cat Missy is sitting right here in front of my monitor as I read this thread.

I'm covering her eyes now. Hopefully she didn't read any of that..

I was already thinking that—not getting ChocolateLab33 starting in on this.

If I remember correctly, I heard sometime ago that some of the stuffed "toy" animals being sold were made with cat's fur and that these were banned after being found out.

Well now. . .

Skinning dogs and cats for fur while they're still alive? Wouldn't the dog and cat struggle leading to "damaged" fur?

In any case, ewww, that sounds horrific.

I didn't look at the video because I want to be able to sleep well tonight.

thats entirely possible. from what i read sometimes the dog/cat fur was dyed and labeled as fuax fur. using fur of any animal serves no necessary purpose and in my opinion should be completely outlawed. i know that the treatment of these dogs and cats isn't much different from the torture and abuse countless other animals suffer every day. but, at least for me, skinning dogs and cats alive is just beyond cruel. what makes it so upsetting is that these animals are domesticated and they trust and only want to please their human companions. when you take something that inherently trusts you and turn around and torture it beyond imagination, i don't know, that just makes my stomach drop. it infuriates me and makes me so sad at the same time.

That's horrible, but it just made me think, why don't they do that with all the strays they have to put to sleep? (after they're humanely put down of course) I mean, you're not going to stop people from wearing fur, might as well use a source that doesn't kill animals unnecessarily.

I didn't watch the video but common sense tells me that skinning dogs or cats alive "so as not to damage the fur" sounds ridiculous. Ever try to give a cat a bath? I have learned that anything coming from PETA definitely should not be believed without further investigation.

I'm against using dog or cat fur for commercal purposes, but remember one thing about this whole concept. The Chinese are a completely different culture and over there dogs and cats are often used for food, and the idea of only using them as "pets" is generally considered ridiculous by most people. That's how they were raised. Does make them crazy or cruel? In France horse meat is very much liked, and considered "good eatin". When you really think about it, why do we eat cows, pigs, sheep, etc., but get nuts when somebody talks about killing horses for food? It all goes back to enculturization, how we were raised. Not anything to do with logic or what actually makes a good source of protein.

I myself would want anything to do with a dog or cat fur product. I'm not too keen on horse hair, either. Rabit fur...well....I've had a pet rabit or two, but the stuff sure is soft! BUT, I don't really want anything made of rabit fur, either. The only type of animal fur I like is the kind that they sheer from the animal, like sheep, goat, alpaca, etc. I love the feel of alpaca fur...super soft, but it's really expensive.

But, this is only my feeling on the whole fur thing. I like animals, and like to treat them respectfully, although, I do eat meat. (though, I was totally grossed out when my dad made me a sandwich steak last week--he didn't wash the meat, and when I opened the bread that I put it on, it was bright red....blech...I threw it away and have been a bit turned of to steak, lately) Here in U.S. (and perhaps other places) people see dogs and cats as pets. They're an actual part of a family and we form a bond with them. We love them. In other parts of the world, this is viewed as being rather strange. I remember somebody, not sure who, it may have been a german cousin or aunt of mine, or perhaps it was one of the Mexican exchange students that were involved in the Sister City Program with me, but they thought it was totally bizarre to see a dog or cat wander around inside a house freely, just like it's human owners. In some countries, dogs and cats are treated like dirt. That's just how it is. It's not because the people are especially cruel or anything like that, it's a societal view. I can tell you, my girlfriend (wife, secretly) and her family are all wonderful people. They are all very smart (doctors/lawyers/nurses/electronic technicians), very nice, kind, religious (Catholic) and family oriented. They are from the phillipines, and back in the phillipines, they had a dog, but it wasn't really a pet. According to Dina (gf), dogs weren't really treated as pets there. She said her families' was skinny and kept in a small cage. She told me some other stuff, that I can't actually remember now, and I'm not able to ask her what it was at the moment, but I was a little bit shocked to hear about how dogs, including theirs, were treated. She thought it was a bit funny how I was shocked at what I viewed to be cruel! It's just the way it is over there, and in many places in the world.


You know what, as I'm typing this, I just starting noticed that the post above me, by lightmeup, is saying the same as what I'm saying! (I'm laughing now) He even covered some stuff I was just about to say, I guess I don't have to anymore! (btw, very well said and to the point, lightmeup! After reading your post, I kind of feel like I've just been beating around the bush. heh)

About the horse meat, from what I've heard, if you go to a MacDonald's in India, that's exactly what you'll be eating. Mmmm, mmmm, a tasty Filet-O-Horse sandwich! They're not really called that, but that's what they are.


Edit: It was just brought to my attention by a Phillipino CPFer that people there as a whole love dogs and do view them as pets. I definitely do not want to give misinformation about this, and will soon become more informed myself.

lightmeup said:

I didn't watch the video but common sense tells me that skinning dogs or cats alive "so as not to damage the fur" sounds ridiculous. Ever try to give a cat a bath?

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Yes, and it's generally not a pleasant experience. :eeksign: It's beyond me how anyone could hold a live cat long enough to skin it without practically getting skinned themselves. Although I reserve judgment on the skinning alive part, the idea of using any animal solely for fur, save the type which can be sheared off, is sickening. That being said, if you're going to kill an animal for food, then using the pelt is acceptable. Killing for food is one thing. Many of nature's creature do this. Killing for vanity is quite another. And yes, I eat meat although I wish an acceptable substitute existed. I tried going without meat in my diet a few times. Besides causing digestive problems, I felt incredibly weak. In the future I'd like to see trays of meat grown in labs via cloning. This would give us meat without taking a life.

jtr1962 said:

In the future I'd like to see trays of meat grown in labs via cloning. This would give us meat without taking a life.

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I can see the supermarket sale ads now.... TechnoFlesh - $3.99/lb!

I'm no vegetarian, but I definitely think that humane treatment of animals is a moral obligation - interpret that as you will.

That issue aside, using dogs and cats for fur is no different than using any other domesticated animal, be it pig, cow, chicken, etc. We're (in the US) programmed to think of cats and dogs as unacceptable as food, but what do Hindu's in India think of our steaks and hamburgers? What do Muslims and Jews think of our pork chops and bacon?

I'm no fan of the Chinese authoritarian regime, but I'm no fan of PETA either.

Well China has no pressure to stop doing this...the republicans will never revoke most favored nation trade status from them. "Free market", isn't that it?

Regarding how their being a different society makes it ok to do that...well at one time in various societies it was ok to beat, enslave, and torture people just for being different colored or poor or from a different religion. That doesn't mean it was right. All things considered, dogs, cats, and actually ALL domesticated animals are living beings with emotions and thoughts. There really isn't any good reason to torture them, whether by keeping them in tiny cages, killing them in painful ways, or other forms of torture. While I think that PETA is pretty far out there, they make some REALLY good points. And another thing to think about, people have a pretty wide range of intelligence, does that make it ok to torture the stupidest ones? Do those humans with the least mental capacity deserve torture and degradation? At which point would they be stupid enough that it's ok to torture them? Ok...now consider this...at which point do other animals become stupid or mentally deficient enough for it to be ok to torture them? Humans are cruel to animals out of stupidity and a sense that other beings don't matter to them. It's only a small step from cruelty to animals to cruelty to humans, and being an apologist for cruel societies doesn't make that society any less cruel.

as long as they are required to label it properly it wont ever be worth their while to ship it here. The US considers cats and dogs companion animals and isn't interested in their fur for other purposes. Other countries dont feel the same way and treat them the same way we do cows and sheep and such.

I dont believe that we can directly affect them selling it to other countries that dont have the moral outrage at a skinned cat that we do. But cat and dog products just dont work in the US.

i was going to make a coat from my dog outa his shedings lol man he sheded so much it was insane .soon as ummer came around he would shed he is a chow mix.

Nomad said:

Regarding how their being a different society makes it ok to do that...well at one time in various societies it was ok to beat, enslave, and torture people just for being different colored or poor or from a different religion.

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If you think comparing animals to people in this situation makes sense, you really don't understand the issue. Or you are intentionally trying to confuse it.

While it makes me sick also.. Cats and Dogs are food to them...
I'm sure a lot of you have leather shoes and jackets.. I do, and I love steaks...
I'm sure we sicken a lot of Hindus.... lol I'm not saying its okay with me, it not..