In addition to reducing the consumer demand for fur, supporting animal friendly legislation is one of the most effective ways to help animals that fall victim to the fur industry.

Many animal protection groups around the world are working to reduce the suffering of animals killed for their fur by passing legislation to ban or restrict trapping, fur factory farming, seal hunting and the importation and exportation of animal fur products.

Your activism and your support of campaigns to pass animal friendly legislation is needed now more than ever! Please familiarize yourself with the existing laws in your country relating to the killing of animals for their fur and the legislative campaigns to stop this needless suffering.

Trapping
More than 89 nations around the world have banned the use of steel-jaw leghold traps. In the U.S., eight states have banned the steel-jaw leghold trap; however the majority of states still permit their use. The majority of states also allow the use of snares, the most primitive, indiscriminate, and inhumane traps used in the country. In the states that do allow the use of steel-jawed leghold traps and other painful traps, the trapping is poorly regulated, and where restrictions do apply, they are poorly enforced.

Only 15 states require any form of trapper education, and three states, Alaska, Montana and North Dakota, have no trap-check requirements, meaning that a trapper can go days on end without checking to see if any animals are suffering in their traps. In Canada, the use of steel-jaw leghold traps, body gripping traps (Conibear traps), and snares is allowed in each province and territory.

The Fur Free Alliance campaigns to restrict and ban the use of cruel traps around the nation by lobbying at the state, provincial, national, and international level.

Fur Factory Farming
Some animal protection groups have had great success in ridding their nations of inhumane fur farms.

Several European countries, including the United Kingdom and Austria, have recognized the inherent cruelty of raising wild animals in captivity for their fur and have banned out-right the inhumane practice of fur factory farming.

Other nations have set strong animal welfare regulations for fur farms that have made fur factory farming cost-prohibitive. For example, Italy has recently passed legislation requiring mink farms to provide the animals with more space, access to swimming water, and pens on the ground by 2010. In Switzerland, the farming of animals for their fur is prevented by legislation which only allows their keeping under what are effectively zoo conditions. Thus, the farming of animals for their fur is cost-prohibitive and there are no more fur farms in Switzerland.

To see a list of nations or states that have taken legislative action to restrict or ban fur factory farms, click here.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is a United Nations treaty that governs the international trade in certain species of plants and animals. Signing the treaty is voluntary; 167 nations have signed and ratified CITES to date.

The treaty contains three Appendices on which species are placed:

When a species is placed on Appendix I, the Parties agree to ban all international commercial trade in that species.

When a species is placed on Appendix II, the Parties agree to allow trade in that species only if certain conditions are met. (For instance, before a Party is allowed to export a member of an Appendix II species, it must prove that the export will not be detrimental to wild populations of that species.)

A species on Appendix III is one that is protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for assistance in controlling the trade.

The greed of the fur industry, especially during the middle of the 1900s, led to the serious decline of many wild cat species and other rare furbearers. The plight of many furbearers, such as leopards, ocelots, and several species of otters, have resulted in those species being listed on CITES Appendix 1, which affords them full protection from the commercial fur trade.

However, the illegal trade in these animals to satisfy many unscrupulous consumers' demand for exotic furs has been found to increase whenever there is an increase in the desire for real fur by the fashion industry.

Other animals, such as the bobcat, leopard cat and river otter, are listed on CITES Appendix II. These animals are still allowed to be killed for the fur fashion industry in many places, but the pelts must be tagged and registered by hunters and trappers so that wildlife officials can keep records on how many animals are being killed and traded.

Trapping lobby groups, such as the National Trappers Association, are currently pushing for the removal of CITES protection for the bobcat, a species that many biologists feel has not sufficiently recovered enough to justify de-listing. Once a species has been de-listed from CITES, there will no longer be requirements that international trade in the species be non-detrimental and nations or states will not be required by CITES to gather data on the trade in the species.