A humane method?

While the use of the leghold trap was mentioned earlier in this site as the most common and preferred method of trapping, it has been called by the American Veterinary Medical Association as the most "inhumane."  Various serious problems have been uncovered by the use of this type of trap. The main argument against the use of the trap is that it causes a slow, painful death for the animal.  Although there are laws requiring trappers to check their traps regularly, many are not enforced.  This means that captured animals may be stuck for days, or even weeks, at a time.  During this time, many will frantically try to escape, causing the trap to dig into their flesh even more.  If escape by this method is not possible, animals may then try to chew off their own limbs to escape this torture.  This is especially true in mothers desperate to return to their young.

If the animal caught in a leghold trap is able to survive long enough for the trapper to return, it will inevitably suffer a torturous death.  The most common method used is to "pin the head with one foot and stand on the chest area near the heart with the other foot for several minutes, which suffocates the animal."  (www.peta.org).  Another method is beating the animal's skull with a blunt object.  The picture above on the right shows an animal just before he is bludgeoned to death by the trapper.

Daniel Kelly, a wildlife researcher, describes his witness of a trapper killing a coyote, which had been trapped for four days in a leghold trap.  Kelly delivered this gruesome story for the 1976 U.S. Congressional committee:

"The animal was exhausted, but, as the trapper approached with a five-foot green birch club, he struggled frantically against the trap, pulling one leg loose and leaving the lifeless paw in the trap.  The trapper swished his cane back and forth to mesmerize the animal.  Suddenly, the club smashed across the coyote's nose and slammed him to the ground.  But the blow was not delivered with precision.  Almost instantly he was in a semi-crouch; blood spurting from the nose; eyes dazed.  The club fell again and, after 14 minutes of stomping and standing on the outstretched animal's neck and chest, the trapper was satisfied the 18-pound 'varmint' was dead."

The leghold trap was considered so inhumane that 88 countries have banned its use.  However, only six states in the U.S. prohibit use of this type of trap:  Florida, Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington.  The leghold trap was also banned on public land in Arizona in 1994.

Trapped animals suffer serious and gruesome injuries

As mentioned before, many trapped animals will chew or twist off their own limbs as they are desperate to escape.  According to www.furkills.org, a study at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge found that 27.6% of trapped mink, 24% of raccoon, and 26% of fox would chew their limbs off in order to survive.  Animals caught in traps are likely to die of dehydration or hypothermia.  Even if the animal is eventually able to free itself, it will probably die of infection, blood loss, or because it is unable to survive in the wild without a limb.  Many animals who are unable to free themselves will be killed by a predator long before the trapper returns.

Another common injury trapped animals suffer is broken teeth.  Trapped animals most likely will think of the trap as a predator, and will try to "attack" it, causing them to knock out their own teeth on the metal object.  The Swedish government held a trapping campaign against foxes before they banned the use of leghold traps in their country.  They found that out of the 645 trapped foxes, over 200 of them had knocked out teeth.  In fact, some foxes had knocked out as many as 18 teeth each in an attempt to free themselves.

Another method of trapping animals are the use of "drowning sets," which are traps set in water, intended to capture semi-aquatic animals and drown them.  Fredrick Gilbert, a researcher who studied these traps, reported that the animals drowned after 2 to 5 minutes.  However, investigations by animal-rights' activists showed that the average time to drown animals was 9 minutes and thirty seconds.  It was reported that beavers were able to remain alive as long as 20 minutes under water before their lungs eventually collapsed.

Non-Target Animals

While most trappers set out with the intentions of capturing a certain type of animal, the chances of finding that particular animal in the trap upon their return is usually very slim.  Because these animals have no value to the trapper, they are called "trash kills."  These animals include deer, ducks, sheep, cats and dogs.

According to www.infurmation.com, a series of investigations by the US Fisheries and Wildlife Commission during the 1940s, '50s, and '60s showed that out of 2,000 captured animals, 78% were non-target animals.  Another study by the Canadian Association for Humane Trapping in 1987 showed that 26% of the country's 4.8 million trapped animals were non-target.  However, that is still a rather large percentage.  Trappers themselves have admitted that for every intended victim they trap, they end up trapping, on average, ten "nontarget" animals.

The following chart shows just how many trash animals are discarded just to make one coat:

Pets can be victims too

Wild animals aren't the only "trash animals" that get caught in these traps.  Many domestic dogs and cats are injured or killed every year.  They are caught on both public and private property.  This can have devastating effects on the family who owned these pets.  Read on for a few examples of just how tragic the trapping of a pet can be:  (from www.infurmation.com)

West Wyoming, PA, 1996 - "A pregnant short-haired female cat lost her five kittens and sustained cuts to the ear and neck while attempting to free herself from a conibear trap.  The cat was found in the trap and taken to a local animal shelter where a veterinarian discovered the dead kitten fetuses while treating the cat."

Cornerbrook, Newfoundland, 2003 - "A seven-year-old black Labrador retriever, Coal, wasrescued after three days spent caught in a fox snare in the woods.  The dog became trapped as it walked in an area of woods near a salmon hatchery that he routinely frequented with his owner.  When Coal didn't come back when called his heartbroken owner searched unsuccessfully for him for three days.  Then a friend with a trained search dog named Brandy was brought out to the woods where Coal was last seen.  Within 45 minutes, Brandy found Coal, who was caught around the mouth in the baited fox snare just off the regular road from which he had been walking with his owner.  Coal's owner was not able to find him because Coal could not make any noises since the snare was pulled tight around his mouth.  After a search, three more baited fox snares were found in the area.  The snare had torn through the dog's mouth and nose, and Coal was worn and feeble.  His weight had dropped from 100-plus pounds to 77 pounds by the time he arrived at the veterinary clinic.  Coal avoided the possibility of blood poisoning and gangrene through intravenous and antibiotic treatment.  After several days, Coal recovered and went home from the veterinary clinic with his owner."

Life On a Fur Farm

In most fur farms, the animals are crowded into small cages, allowing very little personal space for each animal.  This causes the animals to undergo not only very serious physical problems, but psychological conditions as well.  For example, a mink in the wild will occupy up to 2,500 acres of land, and will spend a large part of their day swimming in water.  But confinement in a cage leads the animals to self mutilation, meaning they will bite at their own limbs and tails.  Confined mink, in a sort of neurotic behavior, will also circle for hours in what little space they do have within the cage, which on average measures 10 inches wide by 24 inches long.  Because wild mink are a semi-aquatic animal, up to 10% of farm-raised mink will die from heat-related causes due to lack of water.  Lack of swimming is also thought to lead to increased behavioral problems in the animals, such as self-mutilation.

Other animals, especially foxes, have been found to resort to cannibalism inside fur farm cages.  This is believed to be due the overcrowding of the cages.  It is estimated that 20% of foxes on farms will die prematurely, with half those deaths resulting from cannibalism. 

The open sheds the cages are housed in exposes the animals to extreme weather conditions.  The close proximity of the cages to one another also causing things like parasites and diseases spread like wildfire.

Fur Farm or Slaughterhouse?

There is no federal law that regulates slaughter methods on fur farms, so farmers are free to kill the animals however they choose.  A method that People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (www.peta.org) describes is the stuffing of animals into boxes.  They are then poisoned with unfiltered exhaust from a truck engine.  However, there are times where the exhaust does not kill all of the animals, and they wake up as they are being skinned alive.  Other animals are electrocuted as the farmer clamps one rod to their mouths, and another in their anuses or genitals, and sends an electrical shock, causing the animals to go into cardiac arrest.  A common method for killing mink and chinchillas is by breaking their necks.

Fur statistics

The following table, from worldanimal.net, shows the number of animals farmed worldwide:

Did you ever stop to think just how many animals are killed to make one fur coat?  World Animal Net (from Rauchwarenhandbuch, Germany)  provided a rundown in the table below:

Would you wear your dog?

Warning!!!  The following information and pictures are very disturbing!

Can you see the striking resemblance between these two furs?

It's hard to imagine that you could purchase a fur garment made from the skins of domestic dogs or cats without even knowing it.  But this is a realization that we all need to face.

Undercover investigations by the Humane Society of the United States revealed that over two million domestic animals are slaughtered every year in China for their furs.  Some very gruesome killing methods were described earlier in this site for ranch-farmed animals, however, undercover video footage by the HSUS and investigative reporter Manfred Karreman shows that killing methods for cats and dogs are much more shocking.

"It was terrible," recalls Karreman.  "I saw a cat with her fur being ripped off its back, screaming for a whole minute.  I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and I can still hear her screaming.  I still see their faces, the terror and pain in their eyes; and I hear their desperate cries."

In the HSUS report, killing methods are described as following:

• Dogs are hung by their necks, stabbed in the groin, and left to bleed to death
• Cats and kittens were strangled by being hung by ropes
• Cats also were tied around the neck by a wire noose, and had hoses shoved down their throats, drowning them by pouring water into their lungs

The following pictures show just how grisly this "secret" fur trade can be.

This is a cat who has been strangled by a wire noose.  He will eventually be skinned for his fur.

Cats being skinned in the Philippines     

Notice the cat hanging from the window in the background.

    Cat pelts that have been skinned, awaiting trade.

The type of dog killed most for its fur is the German Shepard.  The following pictures show the process of how the dog is killed and skinned.

Most of the cats and dogs killed are strays that have been taken off the streets.  Others are stolen from the homes or yards of their owners.  However, there are a few countries who reportedly actually farm these domestic animals for their furs.  Karreman found large breeding farms that housed, on average, 300 animals at one time.  In these places, Karreman reported seeing puppies in cold, dark sheds sitting amongst the bodies of dead dogs hanging from hooks on the ceiling. 

Interestingly, these investigations led to the United States government to outlaw the import, export, or sale of products made with cat or dog fur.  A law was passed in 2000 to require all fur products entering the country to be tested by DNA.  Called the U.S. Dog and Cat Protection Act, it is not always enforced by U.S. officials.  In 1998, Dateline NBC revealed that millions of dollars in profits are made every year from dog and cat fur in Asia.  At that time, there were no federal laws prohibiting these furs from entering the country.  "If the imported item costs less than $150, the importer doesn't even have to reveal what it's made," stated the Dateline reporter.

Small pieces of fur may still pass through the country, and never be detected.  People who make these products will even go as far as to "mislabel" the product so it won't be revealed as dog or cat fur.

As you can see from this picture, the trim of this coat was made from Mongolia dog fur.  However, other names traders use to label dog fur in order to avoid detection are:

Gea-Wolf, Sobaki, Asian Jackal, Gou-Pee, Goupee, Kou-Pi, Gubi, China Wolf, Asian Wolf, Pommern Wolf, Loup d'Asie (Wolf of Asia), Asiatic Racoon Dog, Corsac Fox, or Dogues du Chine.  (www.betrayed.org.uk)

In this picture, the coat on the left is made of dog fur, and the one on the right of cat fur:

Millions of animals are tanned worldwide every year for their skins in the $14.5 million industry.  The living conditions of animals killed for their leather are not much better than those on fur farms.  They are overcrowded and treated poorly.

The means of slaughtering these animals are cruel.  According to PETA, farmed alligators may be hit in the head with blunt objects and then skinned.  However, the beating doesn't always kill them, and some animals may remain alive for up to two hours after being skinned.  And these alligators, who may live between 40-60 years in the wild, are usually slaughtered within four years on farms.  Unborn calves are said to produce the softest leather.  However, the only way to get these skins is to purposely abort from or slaughter the mother.  Lizards and snakes are often skinned alive to improve the quality of the finished product.

While the products of down and feathers are a byproduct of the meat industry, meaning that birds are not ordinarily killed for their feathers alone, the methods that the feathers are plucked can be considered by some as cruel.

In the process of live plucking, the birds are held around their necks and their feet are tied together. The plucker then pulls out all the soft underhair from the bird's belly and chest area.  Spokespeople for the down industry say that feathers naturally fall out during the molting season, so the animals cannot possibly endure any pain during the plucking process.  However, animal rights activists argue this, comparing that reasoning to the difference between baby teeth naturally falling out and having your teeth painfully ripped out one-by-one without any anesthesia.

Although the majority of birds in this industry are spared their lives, animal-rights' activists say that the "lucky" birds are plucked dead; meaning that they are slaughtered before the feathers are removed.

While the silkworm is just an insect, like the ones we squish and stomp on every day, it is a living thing.  Animal rights' activists complain that the cocoons are boiled while the larvae inside is still alive, in order to preserve the length of the fiber.  And while we may not think twice about swatting a single fly buzzing around our room or spraying a hive full of bees, the silkworms are killed by the thousands for their natural silk.

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The sweating system is the "method of exploiting labor by supplying materials to workers and paying by the piece for work done on those materials in the workers' homes or in small workshops (sweatshops.)"  (www.encyclopedia.com)  Workers are employed in extremely poor working conditions with hardly any income.  Employees are usually women, children, elderly, and invalids.

In the United States, sweatshops first appeared during the Civil War when soldiers' wives and children earned money by making military uniforms.  Today, an estimated 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 are forced to work in these so-called factories. 

Working conditions of a sweatshop

Olivia Given, a researcher for women workers' rights for the Feminist Majority in Washington D.C., spent a day in July touring a sweatshop in New York City.  What she found was horrific.

The floors were smeared with dirt and grease.  Each room in the factory was filled to capacity with workers, and Olivia was told that workers must stand for the entire time of their shift.

As she walked through the 21-story building, her guides (sweatshop workers) told her that workers were not allowed to speak during working hours, unless spoken to by a manager.  The hours, they told her, were from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, with a half hour lunch break, and a 10-minute break in the afternoon.  Punishment for speaking during working hours ranged from physical punishment to being fired.  Olivia saw only three toilets in the entire 21-floor building, and workers were only allowed to use them either during lunch or their 10-minute afternoon break.  Anyone using the toilet outside these times would be fired on the spot.

Olivia also spotted children in the sweatshop.  A young toddler peeked at her through holes in the door...her mother told Olivia that she could not afford day care.  Therefore, the child had to accompany her mother to these inhumane conditions day in and day out.  Olivia also saw two boys, eight and ten years old, turning a pile of sleeves inside out, one by one.  The guides told Olivia that women were actually encouraged to bring their children to work with them, as the managers "will always find something for them to do."

In Haiti, conditions are far worse.

Jacqueline, a mother of four, works for the Haitian American Apparel Co. S.A.  Her daily task of sewing her quota of 1080 zippers on pants brings her a measly daily wage equivalent to 2 U.S. dollars.  The legal minimum wage is 22 cents per hour.  The cost of living in Haiti is three times that. 

Jacqueline describes that a typical day at the sweatshop includes:  no ventilation, forced overtime, dangerous health and safety conditions, and no access to purified water.

"The factory gets so hot it is like working in fire.  Inside the air is so hot and full of dust that I can't breathe, so I would put my handkerchief around my nose and continue working,"  she said.  "HAACOSA does not have any purified water for us to drink.  Instead, there is a tub of water that, I think, is rainwater or something, because it is smelly and dirty.  I think supervisors pee in the water because it smells so bad.  But I have to drink it, because I don't have money to buy water."

Illegal immigrants

At least 300,000 illegal immigrants arrive in the United States every year, bringing the nation's total to an estimated 5 million.  Many of them have to rely on employment in sweatshops, since the illegal immigrants fear deportation, and lack proper documentation to get a real job.  Many would also rather be subjected to the terrible working conditions of a sweatshop than be sent back to the living conditions of their native lands.

The following table shows the number of illegal immigrants by country of origin in 1996.  (from http://faculty.ncwc.edu)

California is home to the majority of illegal immigrants, housing 75% of the 300,000 that enter the country every year.  Ten percent go to New York, 10% to the prison system, and the rest are scattered throughout the states. 

The raid of El Monte

Inspectors of the U.S. Department of Labor and the California Department of Industrial Relations raided a small apartment complex in El Monte, California, in August of 1996.  There, they found 72 Thai workers locked inside a garment factory, their compound surrounded by a razor wire fence.  They had been kept prisoner and forced to produce clothing inside the sweatshop.  Workers told authorities that they earned 70 cents an hour, working 20-hour shifts, seven days a week.  Their living conditions was a two-story apartment building, and the workers slept 10 to a room that was intended for two.  In the few hours that they were allowed to spend sleeping, they had to face rats crawling all over them.  The employees in this "prison" were prohibited from making phone calls, and all letters they wrote were read by their captors before being mailed.  Their captors also forced them to buy necessities from them, such as food and toiletries, and charged up to five times the retail cost.  It was literally a living hell. 

Eight of the operators at El Monte were charged with involuntary servitude, conspiracy, kidnapping, smuggling, and harboring of illegal workers.  The captors pled guilty to the charges of conspiracy and involuntary servitude.

Inferno at Triangle Shirtwaist

In 1911, a fire destroyed a garment factory in New York City.  Since this factory was a typical sweatshop, all of the emergency exit doors were locked to prevent workers from leaving undetected during the day.  This proved to be fatal on the day of the fire, as all workers were trapped inside.  Some jumped to their deaths from the high windows, preferring to die by that method rather than being burned in the blaze.  One hundred and forty-six people died that day, most between the ages of 15 and 25. 

The company had employed nearly 500 workers, mostly women from Europe.  They worked exhaustive hours to earn a weekly wage of $6 for making a style of blouse known as shirtwaist. 

Although the fire was on a Saturday, and work was supposed to end at noon, many employees were still in the building trying to reach their weekly quota.  When the fire broke out, the majority of workers were still in the building.  Many ran to the elevators, however overcrowding caused them to seal it shut.  When the fire was finally put out later, the victims who were not found on the sidewalk outside were found burned to death inside.

The event caused the public to be outraged.  New York City created a legislation intending to prevent disasters like this from happening in the future.  The federal government followed the city's example, and created legislation across the country to protect the health and safety of workers in these factories.

The following illustration shows where exactly your money goes when you buy a $50 shirt.

    Notice that the labor wage is the smallest percentage.

The development of the cotton industry in the South in the 1800s led to much tension between the states.  The possibility of cotton being cultivated and moving west, creating more states in support of slavery, angered the Northerners.  The invention of the cotton gin made it possible for larger amounts of cotton to be produced in a short amount of time, therefore demanding an increase in the need for slaves.  While people in the south believed that it was their right to continue to use slaves to harvest cotton in new western territories, people in the north fought hard to prevent them from doing so. While cotton was not directly the cause of the Civil War, you can see how it did have quite an emphasis on the tension between the Union and the Confederacy.

The cotton gin's invention created a large demand for cotton worldwide.  The "cotton kingdom," comprised of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, produced more than half of the United States' cotton crop by the 1930s.  By 1850, 80% of all cotton exported to England came from the southern United States.  Between then and the onset of the Civil War in 1861, the number of slaves in the U.S. grew from 500,000 to four million.

A typical day for a slave was rather long and tiresome.  Field hands would begin work before dawn and end well after sunset, only breaking for an hour during the day for a meal.  They also faced constant pressure of being threatened to receive physical punishment from their overseers. 

Mary Kicheon Edwards says she was born on July 8, 1810, but she has nothing to substantiate this claim. As an elderly woman, she speaks of her experiences as a slave in Louisiana:

"I he'ped make de baskets for de cotton. De man git white oak weed and we lots it stay in de water for de night and de nex' mornin' and it soft and us split it in strips for makin' of de baskets. Everybody try see who could make de bes' basket. Us pick 'bout 100 pound cotton in one basket. I didn't mind pickin' cotton, 'cause I never did have de backache. I pick two and three hunnert pounds a day and one day I picked 400. Sometime de prize give by massa to de slave what pick de most. De prize am a big cake or some clothes. Pickin' cotton not so bad, 'cause us used to it and have de fine time of it. I gits a dress one day and a pair shoes 'nother day for pickin' most. I so fast I take two rows at de time."

A problem that many workers in cotton mills face is byssinosis, which is defined as "an occupational disease of the lungs caused by inhalation of cotton dust or dusts from other vegetable fibers such as flax, hem, or sisal."  (www.umm.edu)

Other names for the condition are "brown lung," "Monday fever," "Cotton worker's lung," and "mill fever."

The disease is caused by inhaling the dusts produced by the industrial processing of these fibers, causing an asthma-like condition.  Symptoms of the disease are coughing, wheezing, and a tightness of the chest.  Symptoms are worse at the beginning of the week, and improve once the worker is away from the factory.  It is worse in people who smoke.

While certain medications may be given to reduce symptoms, the only way to really prevent the disease is to reduce the levels of dust in the factories.  This can be done by improving ventilation systems, and machinery.  However, it is often necessary for people to change jobs if they are inflicted with this disease, as some are more sensitive to it than others.  If not treated, constant exposure to the dust may lead to chronic lung disease.

Recent studies have shown that the cotton dust may not be the only thing to blame for the onset of this disease.  David Christiani, a professor of occupational medicine and epidemiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, studied cotton mill employees in China who suffered from respiratory illness.  He found that the cause of "cotton worker's lung" may be caused by a bacterial endotoxin that is carried by the cotton dust that bacteria cells release when they reproduce in the cotton and then disintegrate.  Of his studies, Christiani reports, "Our hypothesis was that there were separate syndromes caused by separate constituents of the dust.  But we found that the chronic lung function loss and symptoms are better associated with cumulative endotoxin exposure than with cumulative dust."