Name of Country: China
Population: 1,321,851,888 (July 2007)
Issues in the Country:
China is best known as one of the top manufacturers and sellers of the dog and cat fur trade. Each year one Chinese Company sells around 10,000 dog and cat fur coats to Russia . Killing cats and dogs for the use of their fur is only one of the reasons why cats and dogs are used. Cats and dogs are killed also for the use of their flesh, to be used in restaurants and sold as popular dishes. China mainly uses the pelts of German shepherds and dogs with gray or yellow fur to produce coats and trims. Cats and dogs are kept in breeding farms where they are kept until winter comes and then they are taken to the slaughterhouse. Some Chinese families raise cats and dogs as pets; however, at the end of the year when winter starts they kill their pets for their fur and take the pelts to be sold in the market. Cats and dogs are slaughtered in winter because the amount of fur on their skin is at its highest during winter. During an investigation that was being done in companies in Beijing , it was found in one company that the butcher kills 10 to12 dogs a day. Cats and dogs packed in sacks and brought into slaughterhouses are left and exposed to very cold and harsh weather conditions. In the time they are being held, they are waiting for their turn to be skinned and killed. Dogs are tied at the neck to a stable place or fence with a short metal wire to decrease movement of the animal while being skinned alive; usually starting at the leg and then working up to the neck. Cats are killed by hanging or while they are hung, water is poured in their throats making them drown. To take the skin off the cat, a cut is first made in the cat’s stomach and the fur is just pulled off. While being skinned, the cat or dog may still be alive and cry for pain. The skinner must try to preserve the skin at its best for a better profit, so various methods like skinning animals alive are applied in the process. The fur factories contain lots of fur during winter because it is at its highest demand. It was found that more than 10,000 cat furs were stored in one factory alone. Around half a million cats are killed every season during October to February. “In the past a shipment sent from China to Italy was stopped because of lack of proper permits; in this shipment 4.7 tons of dog hides were being shipped.” China is one of the few government systems that fur farming is allowed, since there are no government regulations stating that it is not allowed. China gives the choice to fur farmers to fur farm and slaughter their animals as they wish.
http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/What-is-that-they-re-wearing_FurBooklet.pdf
http://www.awionline.org/wildlife/fur/chinesefurfarms.htm
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/ch.html
