Kill It Skin It Wear It

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Organisations

British Fur Trade Association (BFTA)
Brookstone House
6 Elthorne Road
London N19 4AG
E-mail: info@britishfur.co.uk
Website: www.britishfur.co.uk
BFTA aims to raise awareness of the fur trade and help dispel myths about fur. Their site has information about fur labelling and also the history of the fur trade.

Care for the Wild International
The Granary
Tickfold Farm
Kingsfold
West Sussex RH12 3SE
Tel: 01306 627900
E-mail: info@careforthewild.com
Website: www.careforthewild.com
Animal welfare and conservation charity protecting wildlife throughout the world, from cruelty and exploitation.

Coalition to Abolish The Fur Trade (CAFT)
PO Box 38
Manchester M60 1NX
Tel: 0845 330 7955
E-mail: caft@caft.org.uk
Website: www.caft.org.uk
Anti-fur trade organisation with factsheets, campaign materials plus a list of all the UK shops with a fur-free policy.

International Fur Trade Federation (IFTF)
PO Box 495
Weybridge
Surrey KT13 8WD
Website: www.iftf.com
The IFTF promotes strict codes of practice that meet or exceed established and accepted animal welfare standards for wild and farmed fur. The BFTA and IFTF strongly condemn cruelty to animals.

Respect For Animals
PO Box 6500
Nottingham NG4 3GB
Tel: 0115 952 5440
E-mail: info@respectforanimals.org
Website: www.respectforanimals.co.uk
Respect for Animals campaigns against the cruel and unnecessary international fur trade, believing fur farming and trapping to be morally indefensible.

The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC)
Area 5A
9 Millbank
c/o Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR
Tel: 020 7238 ext 5192 / 5016 / 5124
The UK Government's own advisory body, which made public its disapproval of mink and fox farming in 1989. Its judgment makes clear the particular difficulties in subjecting essentially wild animals to intensive farming.

Websites

Animal Welfare vs. Animal Rights: What's the difference?
www.furcommission.com/debate/index.html
From the Fur Commission USA website, this article looks at the impact of militant animals rights groups, as opposed to the more moderate animal welfare groups – arguing that an animal cannot be given the same rights within society as say, a child.

Dying for Fashion
www.careforthewild.com/default_detail.asp?
detail=true&I_ID=202§ion=Home
Results of a year long investigation into fur farms with video footage of extreme violence towards animals. Many of you will find this footage distressing and it is illegal to view this if you are under 18.

The Ethical Case Against Fur Farming
www.respectforanimals.co.uk/home.php/facts/more/
the_ethical_case_against_fur_farming/
Written by an Oxford Don and endorsed by 70 leading ethicists, philosophers, theologians, authors and academics from 14 different countries. This is a well-written and persuasive argument against the use of fur farming on moral grounds alone.

Fighting the Return of Fur
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/sep/18/animalwelfare.clothes
Fur may be back in vogue in Italy and the US – but in Britain celebrities such as Sadie Frost are trying to ban it from the catwalks. So how long will the high street hold out against high fashion? Interesting piece about fur and fashion over the last 30 years.

In Defence of the Fur Trade
www.richarddnorth.com/journalism/
animals_morals/animals.htm
Website of the journalist Richard North and a reprint of one of his articles on the fur trade. He defends mink farms and argues that almost all animal husbandry is a luxury – and at least mink farms do not contribute to the dangerous levels of obesity in the West due to excess eating of meat.

New 'Origin Assured' Label
www.originassured.co.uk
The new Origin Assured™ (OA) label gives consumers confidence about the provenance of the fur they are buying. It is an assurance that the fur comes from a country where national or local regulations or standards governing fur production are in force.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
www.petaliterature.com/
US based but website has lots of information and literature.

A Shocking Look Inside Chinese Fur Farms
www.peta.org/feat/chineseFurFarms/index.asp
Animals were found to be regularly skinned alive and, if they moved because of the pain, their heads and necks were stomped on by workers.

Books

Do Animals have Rights? by Alison Hills (Icon Books, 2005)
Animal Rights is an emotive issue that is never far from the news. But it is often hard to know who to believe: radical animal rights protestors who claim that humans and animals should have equal rights; or scientists who argue that it is always legitimate to use animals for our benefit. In this superbly accessible book, Hills carefully examines the arguments for both sides and defends a practical, liveable idea of the ethics of animals, distinguishing ways in which animals are our equals from ways in which they are not.
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The Ethical Case Against Fur Farming by Andrew Linzey (Respect for Animals, 2004)
Statement by an international group of academics.
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Fur Nation: From Beaver to Brigitte Bardot by Chantal Nadeau (Routledge, 2001)
Traces the interwoven relationships between sexuality, national identity, and colonialism. Nadeau traces the centrality of fur through a series of intriguing case studies, including the battle between Brigitte Bardot's anti-fur activism and the fur industry. She also highlights the connection between 'fur ladies' – women wearing, exploiting or promoting furs – and the beaver, symbol of Canada and nature's master builder.
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Killing Animals by Animal Studies Group (University of Illinois Press, 2006)
Killing represents by far the most common form of human interaction with animals. Humans kill animals for food, pleasure, to wear, and as religious acts, yet analysing the practice has generally remained the exclusive purview of animal rights advocates. These essays reveal the complexity of the phenomenon and examine aspects of the role of animals in human societies, from the seventeenth century to the present day.
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Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the way we treat animals by Karen Dawn (HarperCollins, June 2008)
A new manifesto covering the entire, broad-ranging spectrum of the animal rights movement. Smart and well argued, it's animal rights for a new generation – easy to read, accessible, and packed with cartoons, celebrity-endorsements, and practical tips.
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Venus and Furs: The cultural politics of fur by Julia Emberley (I B Tauris, 1998)
The author assesses fur's role as a literary symbol and sexual fetish. She looks at fur's representation through the ages, including England's sumptuary laws and fur's historical role in building relations between Britain, North America and France. She explores the 20th-century globalisation of the fur industry and the simultaneous rise of animal rights activism and also unravels the complexities of today's embattled cultural politics of fur, including the politically charged images of contemporary fashion photography and film.
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