Exposing the cruelty of the Canadian fur industry, focusing on the problem of fur trim, and announcing the second annual Design Against Fur poster design contest for students who want to use their creativity to end cruelty.

Design Against Fur 2004: Students use Creativity to Counter Cruelty

By: Zipporah Weisberg, Global Action Network

Each year worldwide, over 40 million animals are brutally killed for the fur industry. Out of the two million animals killed in Canada, approximately half of these animals, including minks, foxes and ferrets, are factory farmed under horrific conditions. They spend their entire lives cramped in barren wire cages, barely bigger than their own bodies with little or no protection from the elements and no veterinary care. Many animals are deliberately exposed to extremely cold weather in order to trigger the growth of their thick winter coats. As a result of the unnatural conditions in which they are kept, the majority of farmed fur animals exhibit stereotypic or psychotic behaviour such as endlessly pacing back and forth, or repetively moving their heads around in circles. To save money, the fur industry often feeds the animals carcasses of their own species, effectively turning them into cannibals. The killing methods which include anal-electrocution, neck-breaking, and gassing, are inhumane and imprecise, resulting in many animals being skinned alive.

The other 1 million are caught in cruel traps, including the leghold traps, conibear
traps, snares and the drowning trap. These animals are left, often for hours or days,
with no food, water or shelter, in extreme temperatures. One in four animals will chew
off their own limbs to escape, and will go on to die of gangrene or other secondary
infections. When the trapper finally comes to collect the animals, they stomp or beat
them to death to avoid damaging the pelt. For every targeted animal, three to nine “trash