Government must ban cat and dog fur

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 20th Jun 2003

Liz wants the UK Government to ban the sale of cat and dog fur.

West Midlands Euro-MP Liz Lynne is calling on the UK Government to ban cat and dog fur after Trade Minister Patricia Hewitt stated in Westminster that they are considering labelling, they would not stop the trade altogether.

Liz commented:

"MEPs from all political parties in the European Parliament have long been demanding that the European Commission draft legislation on the banning of cat and dog fur products, so I congratulate Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock in getting the UK Government to at least recognise the situation.

"But labelling simply will not solve the problem. Many cat and dog fur products are already labelled – the problem is they are given misleading names such as 'sable' or even passed off as artificial fur. The worst thing traders could expect to get for mislabelling would be a slap on the wrist.

"The general public does not want to buy cat and dog fur – only a total ban would give it the reassurance it deserves."

The United States of America introduced a ban on cat and dog fur products in 2000.