A widely unregulated industry, the animal fur industry is seen as highly cruel and secretive. And a few states are taking the lead of several countries with the proposal that would ban the sale and manufacturing of animal fur.
Throughout the United State, the animal fur industry “receives little to no oversight from the government,” Common Dreams reported. A movement to ban the use of animal fur has become a global effort to uncover the cruelty within the animal fur industry through undercover investigations and campaigns against clothing brands.
“The private market itself is moving away from fur and exotic skins. In the last couple of years, the movement against using fur has really accelerated,” Kimberly Moore, spokesperson for the Fur Free Society, said. “There was a little activity in the 1990s with PETA, but in the last couple of years there has been major movements by governments to ban the sale of fur. That trend is being picked up by more municipalities in the United States.”
Bans in Serbia, Luxembourg, Norway, Croatia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, U.K., Belgium, Japan, Austria, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, have passed against fur farming or the sale of animal fur altogether. And within the United States, California, Hawaii and and New York City have joined the global movement with proposals of their own.
“The secrecy of the fur industry, and the secrecy they’re allowed by law enables them to have so much cruelty within their industry,” Lewis Bernier, an activist with the animal rights organization, Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), said.
With West Hollywood leading the way in California with its 2011 fur ban, Berkley was the next to pass a ban in 2017 followed by San Francisco in March 2018 and Los Anglese in September 2018, Common Dreams reported. Now, a bill was proposed in the state assembly that would ban the sale and manufacturing of fur in all of California.
In New York City, a bill to ban the sale of animal fur is currently being debated, while Hawaii introduced its first animal fur ban ever.
Consumers are also on board with an animal fur ban demanding the fashion industry use cruelty free products and pressure leading brands to stop using animal fur. A few brands who have succumbed to the pressure and announced bans on animal fur include Gucci, Michael Kors, Versace, Chanel, Coach, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger among others.
“This is a clear global movement away from the use of animal furs, especially among the world’s most respected brands and retailers,” Joshua Katcher, a New York City fashion designer and author of Fashion Animals, said. “The demand for brands to stand proudly of how things are made, not just what they look like. The demand for the beauty of an object and how it was made, more and more consumers want that and want to support these new systems they want to see flourish.”
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