Perhaps the Joe Camel of the 21st Century, the fur industry, deceives young customers into buying a deadly product. A little fur trim on cuffs, collars, gloves or handbags may be dyed or sheared, disguising the fact that it came from animals who struggled in steel-jawed leg-hold traps, or were electrocuted, gassed or had their necks broken in fur factories.
And a loophole in the federal labeling law does not require any fur-trimmed item costing less than $150 to be labeled as real fur, leading many shoppers to believe it is faux. Even if they know it is real, many consumers mistakenly believe that fur trim is just the scraps leftover from full-length fur coats. Yet nearly all foxes killed in fur factories are killed exclusively for trim.
With the warm and stylish alternatives to fur trim, it’s simply unnecessary, because the animals need their fur more than we do.
