UK – Pet Hate
August 2003 – 5’55”
Synopsis
To Europe now, where animal rights campaigners are warning of a growing trade in what to many people is a grotesque product. Cats and dogs, farmed primarily in China, are being turned into furs and dumped on the European market in huge quantities. A member of the European Parliament is trying to have the trade banned, but with little success.
It's believed up to two million items are arriving each year and buyers are completely unaware of what they are purchasing. What's more, there now appears to be evidence that domestic dogs and cats are being farmed in Belgium. The ABC’s Europe correspondent Geoff Hutchison reports from Brussels.And we would like to warn viewers, some of the scenes don't make for pleasant viewing.
Woman trying on fur coat
GEOFF HUTCHISON: Europe's fur business is booming. Many of the fashion houses and designers who deserted it in the 1990s are once again enveloping their customers in fox and mink. Like it or not, it is legal and it's licensed, which is more than you can say for some other products hanging on Europe's racks.
00:00
STRUAN STEVENSON: Here, for instance, is a coat which was bought in Berlin.
00:26
Now this is made, horribly, from 42 Alsatian puppies. It's a full-length fur coat, and the it cost a considerable amount of money. It's made in China, no Chinese markings, but no label on it at all to indicate that it's dog fur. And it's been DNA tested in the university of Amsterdam and confirmed this dog fur.
European Parliament building
GEOFF HUTCHISON: Struan Stevenson is a Scottish conservative member of the European Parliament and the man leading the political charge against the trade in dog and cat fur.
01:01
A trade based primarily in China which he says is dumping 2 million pelts into Europe every year.
STRUAN STEVENSON: I'm a farmer, you know,
StevensonSuper: Struan StevensonMember European Parliament
I've seen a lot of blood and I've seen a lot of things with animals in my time. I'm not a softie when it comes to this. But I love dogs and I love cats and I just cannot stand this kind of wanton cruelty.
01:22
Photos of caged animals
These are cages with six dogs stuffed in a cage being unloaded outside a slaughterhouse in China. Here's a cage full of cats, and they're all heading to be strangled with pulls, with nooses on the end. Here are the skins, here's the basin where the skinning material is placed, and these are these poor dogs within minutes of being slaughtered.
01:35
Stevenson with fur rug
GEOFF HUTCHISON: With the help of animal welfare investigators, Struan Stevenson has collected some grotesque product lines being offered to European customers. This rug is made of the fur of four golden retrievers and was bought in a shop in Copenhagen.
02:07
STRUAN STEVENSON: Often these are reared in the cold north of China so the fur becomes more lustrous.
02:23
GEOFF HUTCHISON: He wants these products banned. The World Trade Organisation won't do so on animal welfare grounds, but he says this is consumer fraud.
STRUAN STEVENSON: People wouldn't buy cat and dog fur products if they knew it was cat and dog fur.
02:29
Women walk with dogs
In the European community, most people have cats and dogs in their homes. These are companion animals. The trouble is they don't know what they're buying.
02::45
Stevenson with fur products
These things are on sale in every country in Europe. I bought this one in Scotland, in my own country, I've seen them in the duty-free area at Malaga airport. These have been tested, DNA tested and bizarrely these little cat figurines are made out of dog. They're killing dogs to make little cat toys. Of course the labels will describe this either as a mythical animal, like a sabaki, gay wolf, Asian jackal. Things that don't exist.
02:56
European Commission
GEOFF HUTCHISON: But the European Commission isn't responding very enthusiastically to his demands.
03:29
BeateSuper: Beate GmunderEuropean Commission Spokesperson BEATE GMUNDER: We're checking the rules on imports. We've said to member states that if they want to they can ban it for imports and Denmark and, I believe Italy have done so. We're also checking our own labelling rules. But obviously at the moment we have Mr Stevenson again and again making these allegations, but we haven't seen any proper evidence.
Super: Humane Society Video
GEOFF HUTCHISON: How about this? An undercover video shot by a Humane Society investigator who came to Belgium in February posing as a buyer of cat furs. He was enthusiastically welcomed and shown an extensive range.
03:58
SALESPERSON: That's also cats.
04:15
INVESTIGATOR: That's very nice.And you make this?
SALESPERSON: Absolutely. We make it summertime when we don't have too much work. This is from China, from somewhere in the region.
INVESTIGATOR: So you buy from China?
04:29
SALESPERSON: We buy from, yeah, from everywhere.
INVESTIGATOR: Have you been there?
SALESPERSON: No, we have people who buy it for us, it's English people who are buying there for us.
GEOFF HUTCHISON: Not only did the investigators reveal a thriving trade, they were also told not all the cat and dog farms are in China -- they're in Belgium too. Family pets and strays being rounded up and killed for their fur.
04:39
INVESTIGATOR: Where do these skins come from?
04:55
SALESPERSON: Belgium.
INVESTIGATOR: Are they farmed or just collected like strays?
SALESPERSON: I think these particular ones have been farmed.
05:04
INVESTIGATOR: Farmed, right? Here in Belgium?
SALESPERSON: Yes. In the town. In Brussels. Cats run around, too many cats, they catch them and then they kill them. INVESTIGATOR: So they're not anybody's pet cat?
SALESPERSON: No, but you never know.
GEOFF HUTCHISON: In the face of mounting, often compelling evidence, the European Commission continues to argue that cats and dogs are not being farmed for their fur in Europe. Despite concern about cruel practices in far-away countries, there seems little willingness either to follow the United States lead and outlaw the trade. Pet lovers here might do well to keep their best friends on a short leash.
05:25
August 2003 – 5’55”
Synopsis
To Europe now, where animal rights campaigners are warning of a growing trade in what to many people is a grotesque product. Cats and dogs, farmed primarily in China, are being turned into furs and dumped on the European market in huge quantities. A member of the European Parliament is trying to have the trade banned, but with little success.
It's believed up to two million items are arriving each year and buyers are completely unaware of what they are purchasing. What's more, there now appears to be evidence that domestic dogs and cats are being farmed in Belgium. The ABC’s Europe correspondent Geoff Hutchison reports from Brussels.And we would like to warn viewers, some of the scenes don't make for pleasant viewing.
Woman trying on fur coat
GEOFF HUTCHISON: Europe's fur business is booming. Many of the fashion houses and designers who deserted it in the 1990s are once again enveloping their customers in fox and mink. Like it or not, it is legal and it's licensed, which is more than you can say for some other products hanging on Europe's racks.
00:00
STRUAN STEVENSON: Here, for instance, is a coat which was bought in Berlin.
00:26
Now this is made, horribly, from 42 Alsatian puppies. It's a full-length fur coat, and the it cost a considerable amount of money. It's made in China, no Chinese markings, but no label on it at all to indicate that it's dog fur. And it's been DNA tested in the university of Amsterdam and confirmed this dog fur.
European Parliament building
GEOFF HUTCHISON: Struan Stevenson is a Scottish conservative member of the European Parliament and the man leading the political charge against the trade in dog and cat fur.
01:01
A trade based primarily in China which he says is dumping 2 million pelts into Europe every year.
STRUAN STEVENSON: I'm a farmer, you know,
StevensonSuper: Struan StevensonMember European Parliament
I've seen a lot of blood and I've seen a lot of things with animals in my time. I'm not a softie when it comes to this. But I love dogs and I love cats and I just cannot stand this kind of wanton cruelty.
01:22
Photos of caged animals
These are cages with six dogs stuffed in a cage being unloaded outside a slaughterhouse in China. Here's a cage full of cats, and they're all heading to be strangled with pulls, with nooses on the end. Here are the skins, here's the basin where the skinning material is placed, and these are these poor dogs within minutes of being slaughtered.
01:35
Stevenson with fur rug
GEOFF HUTCHISON: With the help of animal welfare investigators, Struan Stevenson has collected some grotesque product lines being offered to European customers. This rug is made of the fur of four golden retrievers and was bought in a shop in Copenhagen.
02:07
STRUAN STEVENSON: Often these are reared in the cold north of China so the fur becomes more lustrous.
02:23
GEOFF HUTCHISON: He wants these products banned. The World Trade Organisation won't do so on animal welfare grounds, but he says this is consumer fraud.
STRUAN STEVENSON: People wouldn't buy cat and dog fur products if they knew it was cat and dog fur.
02:29
Women walk with dogs
In the European community, most people have cats and dogs in their homes. These are companion animals. The trouble is they don't know what they're buying.
02::45
Stevenson with fur products
These things are on sale in every country in Europe. I bought this one in Scotland, in my own country, I've seen them in the duty-free area at Malaga airport. These have been tested, DNA tested and bizarrely these little cat figurines are made out of dog. They're killing dogs to make little cat toys. Of course the labels will describe this either as a mythical animal, like a sabaki, gay wolf, Asian jackal. Things that don't exist.
02:56
European Commission
GEOFF HUTCHISON: But the European Commission isn't responding very enthusiastically to his demands.
03:29
BeateSuper: Beate GmunderEuropean Commission Spokesperson BEATE GMUNDER: We're checking the rules on imports. We've said to member states that if they want to they can ban it for imports and Denmark and, I believe Italy have done so. We're also checking our own labelling rules. But obviously at the moment we have Mr Stevenson again and again making these allegations, but we haven't seen any proper evidence.
Super: Humane Society Video
GEOFF HUTCHISON: How about this? An undercover video shot by a Humane Society investigator who came to Belgium in February posing as a buyer of cat furs. He was enthusiastically welcomed and shown an extensive range.
03:58
SALESPERSON: That's also cats.
04:15
INVESTIGATOR: That's very nice.And you make this?
SALESPERSON: Absolutely. We make it summertime when we don't have too much work. This is from China, from somewhere in the region.
INVESTIGATOR: So you buy from China?
04:29
SALESPERSON: We buy from, yeah, from everywhere.
INVESTIGATOR: Have you been there?
SALESPERSON: No, we have people who buy it for us, it's English people who are buying there for us.
GEOFF HUTCHISON: Not only did the investigators reveal a thriving trade, they were also told not all the cat and dog farms are in China -- they're in Belgium too. Family pets and strays being rounded up and killed for their fur.
04:39
INVESTIGATOR: Where do these skins come from?
04:55
SALESPERSON: Belgium.
INVESTIGATOR: Are they farmed or just collected like strays?
SALESPERSON: I think these particular ones have been farmed.
05:04
INVESTIGATOR: Farmed, right? Here in Belgium?
SALESPERSON: Yes. In the town. In Brussels. Cats run around, too many cats, they catch them and then they kill them. INVESTIGATOR: So they're not anybody's pet cat?
SALESPERSON: No, but you never know.
GEOFF HUTCHISON: In the face of mounting, often compelling evidence, the European Commission continues to argue that cats and dogs are not being farmed for their fur in Europe. Despite concern about cruel practices in far-away countries, there seems little willingness either to follow the United States lead and outlaw the trade. Pet lovers here might do well to keep their best friends on a short leash.
05:25