The Astrakhan (aka Karakul) fur industry is a double-winner in the book of cruelty. In order to have the pelt necessary to make the unnecessary coat, not only one animal gets killed.. but two - cause you know... if you want to skin a fetus, prior to that you should kill "its container" .. the mother.
Because their unique, highly prized curly fur begins to unwind and straighten within three days of birth, many karakul lambs are slaughtered when they are only 1 or 2 days old. The rest don't even make it that far. In order to get a karakul fetus's hide - ”called "broadtail" in the industry and valued for its exceptional smoothness - ”the mother's throat is slit and her stomach slashed open to remove the developing lamb. A mother typically gives birth to three lambs before being slaughtered along with her fourth fetus, about 15 to 30 days before it is due to be born. As many as 4 million karakul lambs are slaughtered for their fur every year.
The fur industry tries to justify karakul lamb fur as a byproduct, but with a single karakul lamb coat selling for up to $12,000 and "broadtail" fetus coats fetching as much as $25,000, it's little surprise that the mother sheep and her baby's skinned carcass are usually regarded simply as trash.
And who's profiting from such disgusting cruelty? Designers Ralph Lauren, Karl Lagerfeld, Fendi, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and Jean-Paul Gaultier use astrakhan, and Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale's sell it on their own racks.
But fashionistas with a heart aren't buying it. Claudia Croft, fashion editor of the Sunday Times Style Magazine in London recently called astrakhan "the cruelest and most vicious fur." And "Material Girl" Madonna hasn't been seen in her astrakhan coat since designer pal Stella McCartney scolded her for "wearing a fetus."
What can you do about karakul lamb fur?
DON'T BUY OR WEAR ANY FUR!
If you see karakul lamb fur for sale, write to the store owners or managers, let them know where it comes from, and urge them to pull it from the shelves. If you read an article about karakul lamb fur in a newspaper or magazine, write a letter to the editor .
The following stories are just a few small examples of the vicious and cowardly cruelty that is inflicted on animals in China on a daily basis (not inclusive of the horrendous cat & dog meat and fur trade). There's NO way that these acts are justifiable, acceptable and forgiven - NO WAY. China's Olympic Games are quickly approaching - violence inflicted on humans and animals it's an everyday reality that the chinese government and officials are trying, now more than ever, to hide from the international public eyes. But my personal choice is that till i'll have a voice - i'll use it, and i will not stop to speak out against those terrible cruel actions. The stories and the clips are hard to read and watch - but as the old saying goes "To close your eyes will not ease another's pain".
CLIP 1
A security guard at Wenzhou University beats a helpless dog to death.
A security guard at Wenzhou University beats a helpless dog to death as students videotape from above. For those of you that can't bear to watch this clip yourself, here's what's in it. At the start of the clip, we see that the dog has already lost control of its hind legs and is trying its best to run away from its attacker on its two front legs. The guard comes up to the dog and after another two or three hits, the dog lies motionless on the road. But we imagine it's not dead just yet, it's just left there to die a slow painful death.
CLIP 2
Another security guard on some Hebei university campus who smashes a brick at a dog.
- China's dogs & cats are boiled, stabbed, drowned, bludgeoned, strangled, poisoned, hanged, and electrocuted...experiencing unbearable pain as their legs are routinely broken while trussed up and hung in local markets for human consumption, or skinned alive and cast off like garbage, for the despicable fur trade.
- Dogs [both owned and stray] are relentlessly hunted down by 'police authorized' roving mobs and savagely beaten to death by the hundreds of thousands, in the name of 'rabies' control.
- Bears, suffer a lifetime of excruciating pain as they are surgically mutilated and milked each day for their gall bile. Their paws taken as delicacies for the Chinese restaurant trade or ground into powdered 'medicines'. The use of bear parts supplying the traditional Chinese medicine trade and exotic meat market is the major reason why bear species are declining around the world. Endangered species of bears are fast becoming extinct.
- Rhino, both Black & White, are butchered for their horns and are now highly endangered.
- Over 70-100 million sharks PER YEAR are 'finned' and their carcasses dumped into the sea, to accommodate Chinese' growing taste for shark fin soup.
- 20 million turtles are devoured in China EACH YEAR. Slaughtered alive & fully conscious; their heads are decapitated and crushed...even after a turtle's head is detached from its body, if not crushed properly, destroying the brain, it can survive up to ONE HOUR in agonizing torment. Two thirds of the world's turtles are now threatened with extinction.
- TONS of elephant tusks are carved into ivory trinkets--their feet hacked off for stools and coffee table legs.
- Animals are used as 'dried' ingredients in traditional Chinese medicines and killed in the billions--tiger parts, crocodile bile, deer musk, sea horses, lizards, sea cucumbers, powdered antlers, dog penis, pangolin (scaly anteaters), only to name a few on a seemingly unending list. ALL are considered no more than 'products' to be abused and murdered in the most monstrous ways possible, even if it means permanently wiping many of these species from the face of the planet in order to fulfill often frivolous, antiquated and selfish needs.
- China's role in the single, largest mass butchery of marine mammals on Earth, the annual Canadian seal slaughter, [which has taken over 1.25 million innocent lives in the last 3 years, alone], happens in part, so that dried seal penises can be turned into aphrodisiacs to "theoretically" increase the libidos of elderly men engaging in sex with Asian girls as young as 7 years old.
- Live domestic pets, as well as cows and chickens, are fed to lions and tigers for the "entertainment" of visitors at Chinese zoos. Zoo officials encourage guests to buy domestic animals on the premises, and feed them to the carnivores through special vending flaps fitted onto tourist buses...allowing individuals to throw chickens and other FULLY CONSCIOUS animals to the waiting predators.
- A Chinese chef describes how to cook pangolin [endangered scaly anteater] : "We keep them alive in cages until the customer makes an order. Then we hammer them unconscious, cut their throats and drain the blood. It is a slow death. We then boil them to remove the scales...cut the meat into small pieces and use it to make braised meat and soup. Usually the customers take the blood home with them afterwards." [The blood is thought to have medicinal value.]
- Live monkey brains are considered a delicacy: A "gourmet" can buy monkeys in the marketplace and send them to inns for cooking. The cooks first stuff the monkeys into tiny cages and force them to drink rice wine until they're intoxicated. They are then pulled from the cage and bound by their limbs (preventing movement.) Their skulls are hacked open with a sharp knife to reveal easily visible, pulsing blood vessels.The white brains are then scooped out and served as soon as possible; eaten when still warm with seasonings. Monkey brains become pungent if they are not fresh...if the skull was opened too long ago. Thus it is best to open the skull and eat at once, while brain cells are LIVING and blood vessels throbbing.
- It is not unusual in many areas of China, to see live deer in pens or crocodiles in tanks at restaurants. Buying and eating rare animals is a common way of SHOWING OFF. In southern China, rare meat is known as ye wei (wild taste), and people believe eating exotic animals can endow them with bravery, long life or sexual prowess. The Cantonese brag that they will eat ANYTHING that moves!
WHAT TO DO:
- Boycott China & the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
- Inform your family, friends and as much people as you can about China's cruelty against animals and people
- Contact your local Chinese Embassy and inform them on your choice to actively boycott China's economy by reducing or stopping all together the purchase of items that have been made in China. Below you'll find all the info & contact details where to address your protest:
It can take 40 or more animals to make a fur coat, but only one person to make a difference. Here are nine effective ways to help end the suffering and killing of animals for fur and fur trim.
To jump straight to our fur-free outreach materials order form, click here . To order posters, contact furfree@hsus.org.
1. Be Fur Free
The most important thing you can do to protect animals from the fur trade is to buy and wear only fur-free clothing.
Sign the fur-free pledge and join the more than 115,000 people who have pledged to help us tell the fashion industry that the animals need their fur more than we do.
2. Write Letters
Letters to the editor: Writing letters to the editor is one of the best ways to communicate to the public the problems associated with the fur trade. For almost no expense, and very little time, you can have your arguments against fur read by thousands of people who go to that section specifically to see what other people think about issues. Get tips on how to write good letters on fur.
Letters to stores: Writing letters to stores can help keep a store fur-free, or help convince one that sells fur to stop doing so, especially if you are a valued customer. However, it is generally most effective when done as part of a focused campaign. Contact information for most department stores and big chains can be found on their websites. You can start by contacting "Neiman Carcass."
3. Share Videos
Nothing beats a video when it comes to imparting the cruelty behind fur production. If you have friends who wear fur, ask them to watch the videos on our multimedia page, like "Cruelty by Design." Consider asking—in lieu of holiday gifts—that your close friends and family instead watch a video about the fur industry, like the documentary "The Witness."
4. Wear a Fur-Free Message
Make compassion your fashion with our stylish T-shirt. Our new Compassion Is My Fashion tee is the perfect way to show that it's stylish to be fur free.
Other great ways to send a fur-free message:
# Donna Salyer's Fur Free Compassion Pin # Fur Free Zone t-shirt # "FF" necklace
(note from Animal Voice: you can also create your own customized T-Shirt, nowadays there are many self-made t-shirt shops where you can bring your own design and they will stamp it for you on t-shirts, caps, sweaters, mugs etc.).
5. Educate People
Share our literature with individuals who may be against animal cruelty, but who haven't yet considered what buying or wearing fur supports. Keep fur cards on hand to give to fur wearers, or spend an hour with a friend handing out leaflets outside stores that sell fur. We also make a special leaflet designed to be hung on doorknobs. Order outreach materials here.
6. Organize a Protest or Outreach Event
A protest can be a great way to get media attention and educate shoppers on the issue of needless cruelty to animals by the fur trade. Fur-Free Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, and a huge shopping day) is a traditional day of protest against the fur trade nationwide. Read about previous Fur-Free Friday protests here. Planning a protest? Order cards and leaflets here and contact furfree@hsus.org to request posters.
7. Put Up Fur-Free Billboards
Putting up a billboard is an exciting way to broadcast the fur-free message. The HSUS offers the materials free of charge—all you need to do is identify a location in your area and cover the posting fee to have the visual placed. Thousands of drivers will see your billboard. For more information about posting a billboard in your community, contact furfree@hsus.org.
8. Give Our Trapping Case Report to Your Local Vets and Shelters
Give copies of The HSUS' Trapping Case Report form to your local veterinarians and animal shelters. Ask them to keep it on file in the event that a trapping victim is brought to them. The information we collect from these forms helps us to enact bans on cruel and indiscriminate traps.
9. Donate Your Fur to Coats for Cubs
If you own fur, one of the best things you can do with it is give it back to animals with our Coats for Cubs program. Your donation will give comfort to orphaned and injured animals. Fox kits and other baby animals enjoy the maternal softness of a donated fur.
Canada’s annual seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth. Last year, the world looked on in horror as the Canadian government permitted the slaughter of more than 330,000 harp seals. During the hunt, baby seals are shot or repeatedly clubbed. The Canadian government claims that hunters only kill adult seals, but 97 percent of the seals killed last year were less than 3 months of age. Sealers bludgeon the animals with clubs and “hakapiks” (clubs with metal hooks on their ends) and drag the seals—who are still conscious—across the ice floes with boat hooks. An estimated 42 percent of the animals are skinned alive. Hunters toss dead and dying seals into heaps and leave their carcasses to rot on the ice floes because there is no market for seal meat. The Canadian government has given the go-ahead for hunters to bludgeon to death 335,000 baby harp seals this year. To stop this atrocity, we must generate an international outcry against the Canadian government for sanctioning it.
I want to bring to your attention a terrible situation concerning the lives of cats and dogs in China. Millions of dogs and cats in Asia are killed annually for their skins, which are exported to the UK and other countries around the world. One fur coat requires the slaughter of up to 24 cats and as many as 12 adult dogs. Killing methods are unimaginably cruel: Cats are strangled or drowned, and dogs are restrained by the neck with wire snares and then slashed across the groin. Video footage shows that many are skinned while they are still conscious. Dog and cat fur is still imported into the UK and misleadingly labelled, meaning that fur-coat buyers may purchase dog and cat fur without realising it.
Please watch the following video to realize the reality of the facts (WARNING: it contains shocking visual material) : China's Dog and Cat Fur Trade
It's a crying shame to see this kind of prehistoric behaviour become modern everyday cruelty, of which most people don't know or pretend it doesn't exist.
One of the main things that make this life worth living,
is to help alleviate and end the suffering of innocente beings,
no matter in what shape and form they came to express their soul on
this planet. In particular this Blog is an attempt to drag attention
on the Animal World, to sensibilize and motivate people on taking
action against suffering and abuse of animals,
in every possible field - from vegetarianism to pet and fur trade et cetera.
1person+1person+1person+1person+1person+ 1person+1person+1person+
1person+1person+1person+
1person....
....Makes The Change !!!
Animal Voice is NOT about sharing cute fluffy pictures of animals to make your day go pinker... you'll see some of these photos and stories too, and they are there to give us strength to go on for our MAIN MISSION, that is to correct what's being done wrong. To bring awareness on all of the stories and realities that you ain't gonna see in the front page of any mainstream magazines or channels, HERE we are dealing with what is being hidden, HERE we are dealing with what should never happen but it does, and you can change things only when you are aware of it. Only when you are Aware of it.
So if you wanna be part of this, you are welcome.
You are welcome to enjoy the sweet things, but we need you here MOSTLY to help with the dirty work. We are dealing with the 'dirty work' here and we need people who are ready and willing to help out and get their hands dirty too... cause we all know the best satisfaction we might have after all this, is to know a life, any kind of life, have gained something out of our work. In many cases their life itself.
The aim is to reach as much people as possible, because the animals need every little bit of help that they can receive!
The contents of this website are for information purposes only. They should not be used to commit any criminal acts or harassment. Names and/or facts published in the Animal Voice blog have the sole purpose of informing members of the public about the current situation related to animal conditions - in order to allow people to voice their concerns and carry out protests in a legal manner.
Also, this blog claims no credit for most images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail kiaraganesha@gmail.com with a link to the said image and it will be promptly removed.
Once again: Nothing contained on this website is intended to encourage or incite illegal acts.
The Astrakhan (aka Karakul) fur industry is a double-winner in the book of cruelty.
