Each year, more than 40 million animals are killed for their fur: mink, fox, bobcat, beavers, raccoon, lynx, chinchilla, coyote, fisher, marten, muskrat, opossum, otter, skunk, weasel -%u2014 the list goes on and on. Each piece of fur trim represents an animal who suffered and died; a full coat represents many animals. There is no reason to kill animals for fashion, and many reasons not to.
Animals suffer for days in steel-jawed leg-hold traps before being killed by one of a variety of methods: standing on their chests to crush their lungs, shooting them, clubbing them, stabbing them, or by other equally cruel methods.
Thousands of animals, referred to by the fur industry as %u201Ctrash animals,%u201D are caught in traps every year, including birds, reptiles, squirrels, dogs, cats and sometimes even children. Cat, dog, and rabbit fur is commonly used as trim on many garments. It takes the following number of animals to make one 40-inch coat: 16 coyote, 18 lynx, 60 mink, 45 opossum, 20 otter, 42 red fox, 40 raccoon, 50 sable, 8 seal, 50 muskrat and 15 beaver. This doesn't count the number of trash animals also killed in the process.
