Dear friends and contacts

I was particularly distressed to read a comprehensive article in
today's "Daily Mail" (09.05.2003-Friday) paper about a trade in cat
and dog furs. This is no hoax (I wish it was) and is on pages 10,11 of
today's paper.

The trade originates in two places: the majority from China, the other
from "cat"/"dog" napped pets in locations including London UK.

Retail outlets in Europe including locations visited by the Daily Mail
reporter in Belgium and Holland are selling fur blankets and coats
made from cat and dog fur. Apparently cat fur blankets are supposed to
help arthritic pain! In another incident a coat made from over forty
Alsatian puppies was sold publicly in Berlin, Germany.

The means of capturing and killing cats in particular is obscene. Cats
are captured from locations including London, held in a packed cage
until their coats are in prime size and condition. They are then
strangled with a noose by poking the noose into the cage and
throttling the cat by holding it off the ground. This apparently
preserves the quality of the "pelt".

The Daily mail reporter apparently noted that some cats were clearly
former domestic pets, one was even still wearing a collar with a heart
shaped ID tag. The photos in the article are sure to haunt me for some
time.

In some cases animal fur is apparently dyed to pass it off as fur of
other animals. In other cases people are actually seeking our cat and
dog fur because its unusual, or for medicinal purposes.

There are clearly a number of issues here:
1. The ethics of fur trading as a whole since the animals are only
being killed for their coats and no other reason.
2. Method of killing the animals
3. Method of containing/ housing the animals before killing them
4. Theft of domestic pets

The contacts and people involved in trying to stop this are listed in
the article as:

Daily Mail reporter:David Jones
PETAJ (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Sean Gifford
MEP Struan Stevenson

PLEASE canvass your local MP and MEPs to support the calls for
specific action banning the sale of these goods and prosecuting the
people doing this. Please also spread the word about this going on.

Thank you

Paul

Professor Paul S Morgan-Ayres
Consultant Therapist, NVQ Assessor, Supervisor
Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy, Counselling, Reiki, NLP, Life Coaching
Harley Street: paul@... www.psychotherapy-london.com
Cardiff & General: paul@... www.hypno-analysis.co.uk