China's role as the world's largest exporter of fur garments, with direct links to European and Asian countries, including Taiwan, deserves sharp criticism because of its lack of respect for life, animal rights activists from the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) said yesterday.
EAST released a report on the Chinese fur industry in Taipei yesterday. It is the first ever report from inside China's fur farms and is based on field and desk research carried out last year and last month.
EAST worked in conjunction with groups in Switzerland and the UK, including Swiss Animal Protection, Social Progress for Animal Welfare and Care for the Wild International.
PHOTO: ENVIRONMENT AND ANIMAL SOCIETY OF TAIWAN
At a press conference, video footage taken during researchers' visits to several farms in Hebei Province -- which were raising from 50 to 6,000 animals -- was shown for the first time to the media in Asia.
Animals such as raccoons, foxes, and minks were shown being stunned with repeated blows to the head or by being pounded against the ground. The debilitated animal was then laid on its back or hung upside-down by its hind legs from a hook, and skinning would begin, with a knife inserted in the lower belly.
According to EAST's director, Chen Yu-min (
"We suspect that consumers buying fur products don't know about the brutality involved in the process. Innocent animals suffer for the fashion vanity of humans," Chen said.
According to the report, many animals remained alive after their skin had been stripped off, with breathing, heartbeat, as well as body and eyelid movements all evident for five to 10 minutes.
The report says most Chinese fur farms were established in the past 10 years. Wild species bred for fur include red foxes, Arctic foxes, raccoons, dogs, mink and Rex rabbits.
Wu Hung (
Most animals are killed at about six months old, when they molt for the first time.
Activists said a growing number of international fur traders, processors and fashion designers have gradually shifted business to China, where cheap labor and the absence of restrictive regulations have made it easier to do business and widened profit margins.
Activists said that in the past few years designers have promoted fur in everything from evening wear to sports wear. One fur coat requires the fur of about 80 minks or 25 foxes.
Government statistics in Taiwan suggest that the amount of fur products imported from overseas has increased dramatically, rising from 1,497kg in 2001 to 9,944kg in 2003.
Fur products imported from China, meanwhile, have also increased significantly. In 2003, more than 70 percent of fur products imported were from China. Last year, the percentage rose to 85 percent.
"Why do some consumers in Taiwan, which sits in a sub-tropical area ... need fur products to keep them warm?" Chen said.
Activists said entertainers in show business should take the lead to boycott fur products.
"In China's fur industry, we don't see any spirit to help the weak and aid the needy. Seeing this crime, Taiwan should not become an accomplice," Mary Chen (
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and