At last, EU unveils plans to end cat and dog fur trade

9.23.23am GMT Tue 21st Nov 2006

More than three years after first calling for a ban on cat and dog fur products, West Midlands region MEP Liz Lynne has welcomed long-overdue plans by the European Commission to outlaw the trade in the EU.

Euro-MP Liz said:

"Finally, after campaigning for such a long time to stop cat and dog fur products being sold in the EU, it is great to see the European Commission has managed to overcome the legal obstacles it has always said made a ban impossible.

"In the past, the UK government has put forward half-hearted solutions such as the labelling of products but it was obvious that traders would have simply found ways around that by using misleading terms - a total ban will now mean there is no way to fool people.

"There is strong evidence that more than 2 million cats and dogs are killed in Asia solely for their fur, that they often live in horrific conditions and that in some cases are skinned alive.

"While a ban on such products in the European Union will not directly stop that situation, so much of these farmer's trade comes here that by closing down the market it will hopefully put them out of business for good."

Editor's Notes

Dog/cat fur has been found not just in clothing but also in a number of personal accessories and children's soft-toys.

Cat and dog fur is usually mislabelled or disguised as synthetic.

The European Commission is calling for an EU-wide ban on trading in cat and dog fur. They had previously claimed a ban was impossible because the EU is unable to legislate on ethical grounds.

The European Parliament passed a written declaration in 2003 calling for the Commission to draw up plans for a ban.

The USA, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece and Italy already block these imports

The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers will now consider for adoption the draft regulation by the co-decision procedure.

For more information please go to: http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1586&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en