Consumer Info: Investigation—What is that they're wearing?

5. Death by the numbers...

At a factory in China, investigators saw piles of dog furs that were dyed, then manufactured into coats and jackets in the same factory. The high quality of some of the finished garments could undoubtedly deceive many consumers. In fact, many dyed dog fur coats like those at right are virtually indistinguishable from fur such as mink or fox.
	Investigators purchased these toy dogs in China—lifelike replicas of pets, made with the fur of slaughtered dogs.

One Chinese company told investigators that it had 50,000 cat skins and 50,000 dog skins in stock. At one German auction alone, 10,000 Korean dog fur pelts were available. One shipment from a Chinese company to the Czech Republic, reportedly for the Czech army, contained 5,329 kilograms (11,924 pounds) of "house cat skin jackets + plates", representing the slaughter of 40,000 to 55,000 cats. One Chinese fur factory told investigators that it had 100,000 cat skins stored in its factory. Documents detailing the export of "house cat skin jackets and plates" from a Beijing company to a company in the Czech Republic indicate that the number of cats killed for just one shipment totaled 40,000 to 55,000, possibly more (calculation based on total weight of the pelts). One shipment from China to Italy was seized for lack of proper permits. It contained 4.7 tons of dog hides.

This particular shipment was destined for Russia. Each box contains approximately eleven dog-fur coats. Each coat is made from approximately fifteen dogs. The boxes seen in this photo alone represent the suffering and death of at least 3,630 domestic dogs.	This showroom in China displayed dozens of mink and fox coats alongside full-length coats made from dog and cat fur.

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