This was distributed directly to kids by the PETA. You can even watch a video of it on their site.
Posted on 11/28/2005 11:40:43 AM PST by bloggodocio
Sir Paul McCartney has vowed never to perform in China after seeing horrific undercover footage of dogs and cats being killed for their fur.
The former Beatle also said he would boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics after viewing the footage taken in a fur market in Guangzhou, southern China.
The film shows animals being thrown from a bus, and into boiling water.
A Chinese official said boycotts were not justified, and blamed US and European consumers for buying the fur.
In the film, dogs and cats packed by the dozen into wire cages little bigger than lobster pots are pictured being thrown from the top deck of a converted bus onto concrete pavements.
The screaming animals, many with their paws now smashed from the fall, are then lifted out with long metal tongs and thrown over a seven foot fence.
They are then killed and skinned for their fur.
Animal welfare group Peta believes many of them are still alive as their skins are peeled away.
Sir Paul, and his wife Heather, looked aghast and close to tears as they watched the footage for a special report for the BBC's Six O'clock News to be screened on Monday.
They urged people not to buy Chinese goods.
"This is barbaric. Horrific," said Sir Paul.
"It's like something out of the dark ages. And they seem to get a kick out it. They're just sick, sick people.
"I wouldn't even dream of going over there to play, in the same way I wouldn't go to a country that supported apartheid. This is just disgusting. It's just against every rule of humanity. I couldn't go there."
In another piece of the harrowing footage, shot this summer by an undercover investigator connected to the People for the Ethical treatment of Animals (Peta) campaign group, cats are seen squirming inside a sack which is then thrown into a vat of steaming water.
They are boiled to death and skinned by a fleecing machine similar to a launderette tumble drier.
Some of the 28-minute footage is too gruesome to be broadcast.
Campaigners estimate that over two million dogs and cats are killed for their fur in China every year. China also farms animals such as mink for their fur and makes over half of the world's fur products.
McCartney added: "How can the host nation of the Olympics be seen allowing animals to be treated in this terrible way?"
Heather McCartney, herself a vociferous animal rights campaigner added: "I've seen so much footage where these poor creatures are clearly alive when they're skinned. And for what? For fashion? It's sick.
"People in every other country in the world should now boycott Chinese goods."
"If they want to consider themselves a civilized nation," said Sir Paul, "they're going to have to stop this."
A spokesman for the Chinese Ambassador in London told the BBC: "Though cats and dogs are not endangered, we do not encourage the ill treatment of cats and dogs.
"But, anyway, the fur trade mostly feeds markets in the US and Europe. Most of this fur is not for the Chinese market. So the Americans and Europeans should accept the blame.
"We have no plans to clamp down on this internally that I am aware of - it is for the US and Europeans to take their own action. They should boycott fur as a fashion material.
"I do not agree with Mr McCartney and his wife's point of view - a boycott of Chinese goods and the Olympics is simply not justifiable."
It is not currently illegal to trade in dog and cat fur in the UK and most of Europe.
Ethical abhorrence
But the UK government sees any legislation as being a European issue - as once the fur enters Europe from China, free trade and the difficulty of identifying the fur makes it almost impossible to police.
A DTI spokesman told the BBC: "The government shares the ethical abhorrence felt by many. That is why it banned by statute fur farming in the UK in 2000.
"Action is best taken at the EU level as a harmonised approach throughout the EU would have greater impact and avoid obstacles to the operation of the single market."
There is little evidence, as yet, of the fur products being sold in the UK. Campaigners insist they are available up and down the country, but it is impossible to tell the difference from other fur without the aid of expensive genetic tests.
The British Fur Trade Association, which represents the booming fur industry in the UK, insists that its members do not knowingly use dog and cat fur and have introduced a fur labelling system to try to guard against its use.
"As an industry, we are against any form of animal cruelty," said a spokeswoman.
"We deplore and work against the mistreatment of animals. For this reason, we also actively support and encourage the adoption of Western fur farming practices on Chinese fur farms."
Ruse accusation
But pro-fur campaigner Richard D North says a European ban is heavy handed.
"This is a ruse by campaigners to attack the legitimate fur trade. Nobody has ever found a large amount of cat and dog fur in the UK.
"The European fur industry would never use it. Why bother, when there are lovely skins from properly farmed animals?"
Euro MP Struan Stevenson has an array of cat and dog products in his Brussels office - including a coat made from Alsatian skin, a pelt made from four golden retrievers and a blanket made from around 70 cats. All were bought in Europe.
"It's cheaper to make these things from cat and dog than it is to make synthetic fur," he told the BBC.
"It really is time for this trade to be banned and the EU border to be sealed against it. And the new trade commissioner is more than sympathetic."
Markos Kyprianou, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, is responsible for this area of EU law.
His spokesman, Phillip Todd, told the BBC: "As a human being, the commissioner abhors this trade and is very supportive of there being a ban. There are, however, legal obstacles which would need to be addressed before a ban could be put in place."
Woof!
Somoyeds?! That's really, really cruel!
Why?
I mean, why is it any more cruel to wear a dog than it is to wear a fox or mink?
Dognapping is a regular feature in SE Asian newspapers.
I've personally seen them at work with my own eyes: one guy drives the motorcycle, and the guy behind him grabs the dog. They swoop in behind the dog and grab it in such a manner that the "napper" doesn't get bitten. But the one time I saw it, it was in front of a crowded cafe, and the dog made *a lot* of noise.
Last I recall, they were paid $5 to $8 per dog, which is then sold in the restaurant for $20. That's a very large sum for a meal in SE Asia.
By the way, this is a Chinese thing, and Hanoi. Not real popular outside those groups.
Ugh - i don't think the descriptions here are anything I'd like to share with dog lovers.
It's a "guy thing". The meat is supposed to be spicy, and there's some drinking connected with it.
This thread is not for the squeamish. It's a cultural investigation.
This was distributed directly to kids by the PETA. You can even watch a video of it on their site.
Why? Well, because Samoyeds are great dogs; friendly, strong, brave, perserverent, good with children, loyal. Great companions. Why would I want them killed for their fur when you can make similar stuff in a factory??
Instead, How bout we take ten of your best human friends and skin them for their hair, to make wigs out of (fake wigs are no fun) ? Only we won't kill them, since that would be mean.
Let me see if I get the liberal mindset. Forced abortions, using babies bodies for their stem cells, and murder of political dissedents by communists, OK, set up the concert. Use of fur from Dogs and Cats, that is horrible. Stop the planet I want to get off. Skinning an animal alive is wrong, but hardly compares to the real horrors of China.
Whatever... Half the posters thinking whatever Paul says must be wrong because he's Paul, and he's a lefty, Half think he shouldn't care about this as long as people suffer, as if there is only one good cause in life, a few will proclaim that there is no reason not to wear dog, we should all do it, as if we have no higher relationship with dogs in this country than we have with our food, and some will read it and just be saddened.
I guess I'm in the latter. I sometimes get so fed up with the vile product of mankind, I see little worth in the lot of us :~D
Obviously you're a fan of the breed. I picked a fuzzy dog picture at random, it's nothing personal.
Why would I want them killed for their fur when you can make similar stuff in a factory??
Apparently, it's cheaper to use dog and cat fur.
Instead, How bout we take ten of your best human friends and skin them for their hair, to make wigs out of (fake wigs are no fun) ? Only we won't kill them, since that would be mean.
Why don't you dry your eyes, blow your nose, take a deep breath, and reread my post (The first one, where I said I'm not inclined to wear fur), and realize that since I don't buy fur, and don't eat much meat, you don't have to kill my friends to keep your dogs safe.
Oh, so all animals lower than human deserve the same disdain? From the lowly snake to the dog and cat? No credit for human companionship or basic compatability?
Is this in the Bible? I must have missed that particular lesson.
We kill cattle and use the beef for food and hides for upholstered products, we kill hogs and use the pigskin to wrap an oblong ball for that famous anti-islamite Sunday ballgame.
The Chinese kill dogs and cats and use the meat for food (delicacy - not for average fare) and the hides are used for stuffed toys.
Because we've preferred one domesticated specie over another for food doesn't mean we're any different.
"There's a cat in the kettle at the Peking Moon,
A little puppy dog on the end of a spoon.
I'd really rather have beef, chicken, or pork -
but it's right there on my fork. Yea, it's right there on my fork."
You don't have to kill dogs to get access to their fur , either. But thats what they do in China. I think it's SICK, personally.
If animals are being boiled or skinned alive, I find that I have common ground with Sir Paul here. Can these allegations be verified?
As long as you disdain them all equally.
Seriously, though, say you had a pet mink, or fox, or raccoon, that you loved and raised from a tiny baby. If your neighbor's pit bull got hold of it, would you shoot the dog?
Of course you would. It's not the species that matters, but how close the animal is to you.
Is this in the Bible? I must have missed that particular lesson.
You also must have missed the part where I completely fail to bring the Bible into this discussion.
Back in '98, I went through the farmers' market in Guangzhou - before the SARS episode. I SAW them knock a cat unconscious (killed? I don't know) and dip it into a cauldron of about six gallons of boiling water. It was immediately skinned and hanged upon a hook by the sinews of the hind feet.
The last time I was in Guangzhou, the market had been cleaned up, the restaurant (I then thought was a pet shop) no longer had live, caged animals at the entrance.
Wow. So glad that old beatle is on top of that fur thing. We certainly wouldn't want to waste anytime on a silly thing like forced abortions and other lack of human rights over there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.