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KONG SOON WAH
STRUCK on the head with a big stick, then
picked up by the tail and smashed against the ground, the raccoon dog is bloodied and dazed but still very much alive, its eyes blinking slowly.Then the man hangs it up by a leg and proceeds to skin it, making a slit in one of its hind legs.
When big-enough cuts have been made to the hind part of the animal, its skin and fur are peeled
off in one piece, leaving a bloodied body, which joins a pile of similarly naked carcasses.
But the raccoon dog isn’t done.
With its remaining strength it struggles to raise itself, its head a mass of red, its eyes glazed. But the effort proves to be too much and it falls back.
Just when you thought its suffering has ended, it tries to raise itself again.
In another scene, an animal is skinned on the ground. A cut is made along each of its legs. Each time its free legs jerk from the pain, it is hit on the head with the back of the knife, and its neck stepped on.
When it thrashes about more vigorously, both its neck and head are stepped on.
In a long shed, other animals housed in small wire cages await their painful end. Some paw at he
cage, hoping in vain to escape. Others dash about, as if they knew what lay ahead.
The place? A fur farm in China’s Hebei province.
The video was filmed by an undercover team from Swiss Animal Protection/East International.
The investigators found horrors beyond their imagination and concluded:
“In their lives and their unspeakable deaths, these animals have been denied even the simplest
acts of kindness.”
On another website, there are photographs of raccoon dogs with their paws hacked off while still
alive.
Life for animals on fur farms –raccoon dogs, foxes, minks, rabbits and others – is literally hell.
I winced when I watched the video on the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) website (http://blog.peta.org/archives/raccoon_dogs/).
I was outraged. How could the men be so sadistic, so unfeeling?
Do they not feel pain too if they are cut?
And how could consumers in good conscience buy fur products, knowing that the animals suffered a horrible death?
Perhaps they didn’t know?
Some do have an inkling.
Two months ago, when my family visited a photo studio in town, we took along our family pets, two eight-year-old rabbits.
On seeing them, one of the studio employees said: “You will hate
me because I carry a handbag made of rabbit fur. It is so nice, so soft.”
Strangely, she declined to pet the two rabbits.
So, what can we do about fur farms – be they in China or elsewhere?
We can put them out of business. Each of us can do our part by boycotting fur coats and anything made of fur, even those with a European label – you won’t know where the fur came from.
And, yes, watch the Peta video and spread the word – tell a friend about it, post this article on your blog...
With the exposes on the Internet, consumers cannot plead ignorance of what goes on in the atrocious fur trade.
myp@sph.com.sg
