What is the motive for people to support this cruelty? What reasons are there to take a living creatures life for the purposes of fashion and profit. The ads that all of us see in magazines and commercials portray fur coats as a symbol of elegance, but one thing that these ads fail to let us know is how the original owners of these coats met their gruesome deaths. As the animal rights group In Defense of Animals known as IDA states, "Once a symbol of glamour and success, is now the symbol of Insensitivity, Vanity, and Greed." Furriers often claim that trapping is a necessary tool for wildlife management, but again as IDA states "Trapping as a commercial enterprise can never be a wildlife management strategy." Obviously the trappers are going to go towards the animals that are making the most money for their furs rather then trying to make balance in nature. Trappers in the United States alone kill 4.9 million fur-bearing animals each year. The methods that are used to trap animals for their furs are more then inhumane. Animals who are caught in the hidden steel jaw trap will have to die a slow excruciating death. Many times these animals freeze to death or are attacked by predators. Just a few examples of how long animals must be in these traps for, an opossum spends on average 2700 hours in a trap, a sable spends on average 3000 hours in traps, and a mink spends on average and astonishing 3600 hours in a steel jawed trap. When an animal steps on the leg hold trap, spring the traps jaws slam on the animals limb. As Dr Robert E. Cape explains, "if the trap is properly anchored, the captured animal will struggle to get loose, mutilating the foot causing deep and painful lacerations." 4 out of 5 who are caught in the steel jaw traps will even frantically chew of their own legs just so they can escape this unthinkable pain. If these animals do not die from blood loss they will probably be killed by predators hunters or other traps. If the animals are still alive in the traps when the trapper returns, as G. Blair states in his book Fur Trapping: A Complete Guide, "Hit the trapped animal just forward of the eyes with the stick.  While it is unconscious use your knee or the heel of your shoe to come down hard behind the front leg, this ruptures the heart and the coyote never gains consciousness." The worst part about these traps is that many animals are caught and their furs aren't up to the standards sometimes because of all the blood that has stained the fur, so they are just discarded. The industry calls them the "trash animals." There can be up to 1060 trash animals per fur coat. There are many different types of traps, but the steel jaw trap is by far the most commonly used. Another example of a trap is the water trap. Victims of water traps are in most cases are beavers or muskrats. These traps can take up to 20 agonizing minutes to drown their victim.

    Traps are not the only way that animals are killed for their furs. Another 3.5 million animals are raised on ranches and killed for their furs each year. Many people are under the impression that the animals on the ranches are treated well and that it is much more humane to raise on animals on ranches for their furs then it is to catch them in traps for their furs. This is not the case. Foxes are kept in cages only 2.5 feet square. Minks and other species are kept in cages only one by three feet and there can be up to four animals per cage. Minks, foxes and chinchillas are fed meat and fish that animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals known as PETA states are, "so vile that they are unfit even for the pet food industry." One of the more shocking facts about fur farms is that there is no humane slaughter law that protects the animals. Fur Farmers don't care about how their animals die, all they are thinking about is how to preserve the quality of the fur. One method of slaughter in farms is shoving the animals up to 20 at a time in boxes where hot, unfiltered exhaust is pumped in by a hose from the farmers truck. Engine exhaust isn't always 100 percent effective in killing animals so sometimes the animals will wake up in the process of being skinned. Gassing, decompression chambers and neck snapping are other common slaughtering methods on the fur farms.

    On Americas Most Wanted on February 6, 1999 Adam Troy Peace was on the show for allegedly freeing many minks from a Salt Lake City Mink Farm. Other people who are on this show were murderers, rapists and burglars. I think it is sad that a man who risked his life and his reputation to make a voice for the voiceless and save these minks that would have been eventually skinned for their furs is classified as the same people who murder others and rape others. Adam Troy Peace was one of the ten most wanted men in America. What has society come to when a man who has compassion for life is more wanted by the FBI then a man who murdered another man?

      The fur industry has deceived us into believing that fur is a sign of elegance but we will not be tricked.  Many stores refuse to stalk fur, many designers refuse to use fur, and many movie directors such as Oliver Stone and Steven Spielberg refuse to use real fur on the sets of their movies, but yet the number of animals being killed for their furs has not significantly changed. The fur industry has even sunk so low to say that fur is a natural way to dress, but in fact turning the furs into a coat involves preserving it with toxic chemicals such formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. There is nothing natural about fur. Fake fur is made from petroleum derived synthesis, but even more petroleum is used in making real fur. A study by Ford Motors discovered that it takes 3.6 times more energy to make a wild trapped fur coat then to make fake fur, and it takes an astonishing 20 times more energy to make ranched fur then fake fur. Wearing fur is just as bad as killing the animals because by buying fur people are supporting the fur industry and giving it the money to go out and kill more animals. Even if the fur companies could make a more humane way of killing animals for their furs it still would never justify killing a living creature for a coat. Right now animals are killed through ranches and traps and neither of these two options are in the slightest way humane. The ranches neglect the most obvious of animal needs to the point where they don't give them the chance to move around and the traps could not be more painful for animals, animals chew there own legs off because it is less painful then sitting in the traps.The pain that the animals go through from being in traps, even if they escape is not even describable  People need to realize that they are not the only species on this earth. We do not have the right to go around killing other creatures, especially for fashion.

Therefore I advocate that the United States Government pass the following piece of legislation through congress.
Section 1: It will be illegal to produce and market any new fur products. By making fur illegal it will cut off almost all profit that would be made and it would create a major risk for anyone that felt the need to market fur.
Section 2: Purchasing Fur will be made illegal. By making purchasing fur illegal it will make it harder for anyone to sell fur. Fur will be in much less demand because it is illegal thus making the attraction to sell fur much less then it already would be.
Section 3: It will be made illegal to hunt furs for sport. Hunting furs for sport is even more terrible then for fashion.  The animals must go through the same painful suffering but in the end all of the furs are wasted.
Section 4: A violation of these laws will result in being punished under current animal rights laws. People can spend up to years in jail for doing inhumane things to animals such as hunting animals for their furs. 
Section 5: Any fur farm or traps to catch animals for their furs will be shut down immediately and all animals from the fur farms will be placed back in their regular habitat.
    Why would we want to support the slaughter of a living thing for fashion and profit when we could embrace respect for life?  We all have to make a choice. Fashion …. Or compassion.