Forget Fur, Go Faux!

Can you believe that it takes as many as 40 animals to make just one fur coat? It’s true! Every year, millions of animals—like coyotes, bobcats, lynxes, opossums, nutria, beavers, muskrats, otters, foxes, minks, bunnies, and raccoons—are trapped, drowned, or beaten to death in the wild and strangled, gassed, or electrocuted on fur farms.

Trappers use painful steel-jaw leghold traps to catch wild animals so that they can be turned into clothing. Dogs, cats, birds, and other animals are often caught in the traps, and many actually chew off their legs to get free. 

Animals who are farmed for their fur live in filthy conditions and are fed “meat byproducts,” which is food that’s not considered fit for humans to eat. Minks, chinchillas, foxes, hamsters, raccoons, and other animals on fur farms are stuck in cages where they’re exposed to all sorts of weather conditions, including the blazing hot sun, pounding rain, and snow. No federal law protects these animals, which means that fur farmers can pretty much get away with murder … literally. Always remember: Fur only looks good on its original owner!