Activists in Tianjin recently rescued more than 400 cats who were about to be slaughtered for their fur and meat. Many of the protesters had recently lost their own pets, and suspected they had been abducted by furriers. The police were no help since there is no law in China against killing cats and dogs. But the demonstrators persevered, and after a scuffle the Hebei provincial government allowed the cats to be taken to a nearby shelter.
The Chinese may be ahead of the game in terms of eating fewer animals than the gluttons here in the US, but it’s rare to hear of their animal rights successes.
But while J.C. Penney is abiding by that law, they’re 1. claiming the dogs are actually “raccoons” (there’s no relation) and 2. blotting out the word “raccoon” on the coat’s tags, which 1. is illegal under the Fur Products Labeling Act of 1951 and 2. makes no damn sense. At least Macy’s pulled the coats from store shelves.
Looking back at an earlier post about this topic, I found an insightful comment updating this issue. Though it was difficult to find, I did find one source, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, confirming that Beijing’s dog culling has been called off due to international outrage. IFAW reports:
Thanks to thousands of letters from concerned animal lovers around the world, including from within China, the anti-dog crackdown in Beijing has been officially stopped. According to the South China Morning Post, Chinese President Hu Jintao “was unhappy about the complaints and international media coverage” of the crackdown and put a stop to it.
The Washington Post reports on the protest leading up to the decision to call off the culling. Reuters follows the story and provides a video of the protests here.
The Humane Society of the U.S. is claiming they bought a Sean John coat with an “imitation” fur collar from Macys.com only to find the label actually read “genuine raccoon fur.” HSUS is testing the fur to see if it’s from the Chinese raccoon dog. Macy’s has a policy against selling dog and cat fur; since this coat incident, HSUS has appealed to the company to stop stocking all fur-trimmed clothing.
