A cat in China—much like a sweet, social feline you may know—is peacefully sunning herself on a doorstep when a stranger grabs her by the scruff of the neck.
She freezes, terrified, then tries to escape—but the stranger's grip is too tight. She's shoved into a cramped wire cage on the back of a truck, packed in so tightly with other abducted cats that she can hardly move.
The truck eventually stops at a crowded, noisy market, and the cages are dropped to the ground. The cats wail in pain and fear—but workers keep throwing and kicking the cages.
She's soon roughly yanked out. Her horrifying ordeal ends with a blow to the head and a knife to the throat before she's strung up and skinned for her fur.
Cats like these are being sold and killed at live-animal markets in China—grisly places not unlike the one where the novel coronavirus reportedly originated.
Eyewitnesses have documented as many as 20 cats packed into a single cage—800 or more animals crammed onto a single truck.
The tremendous suffering inherent in the fur and leather industries isn't enough to stop companies from trying to profit from the sale of animals' skin—often, by killing these individuals as cheaply and quickly as possible. It's not uncommon for workers to kill animals by hanging, strangling, or bludgeoning them to death—and some will even show signs of life as their skin or fur is torn off.
Trinkets and coat trim made from cat and dog fur may be sold at markets in China, but that's not the only place they're found. Some companies have been known to mislabel their accessories deliberately in order to dupe unsuspecting consumers in other countries. If you know anyone who still wears fur, they may very well be wearing the remains of an abused cat.
The only way to prevent animals from suffering in the fur trade is to persuade consumers and designers to stop buying fur and other animal-derived materials—and for 40 years, PETA has been doing just that. No organization has done more than PETA to encourage big names in fashion to ditch fur, been a stronger advocate for laws to ban fur farms and fur sales, or inspired more consumers to choose clothing that no cat, dog, sheep, or other animal suffered for.
We know what's happening. We know where it's happening. We know how to stop it. We just need your support.
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