Greed and Vanity Still Strong: Fur Makes Big Come Back: China and Rich Drive This Bloody Industry

Not good news. Seems that most don’t heed the reality of the cruelty of fur and are now flocking back to it.

Of course, cruel China - leads the way. And this is in addition to their continued torture and slaughter of dogs and cats for fur and food. See
http://geari.blogspot.com/2006/03/
crash-course-in-unbelievable-cruelty.html

Also at fault is the American Legend auction, the largest remaining fur market in the United States. More on this can be found in the article below.

For more on the reality of fur and for pictures and video of what actually occurs to make a fur coat visit:

http://www.furkills.org/

http://www.furisdead.com/

Here are a few paragraphs from the article below:

American Legend auction, the largest remaining fur market in the United States, where $100 million in business is transacted in a few days.

After a few rough decades, fur is back. Spurred by a boom in demand from China and recent popularity at home thanks to glossy marketing, the price of American mink pelts jumped 33 percent just last year.

Denmark rules the fur industry, selling 80 percent more mink than the U.S. Garment manufacturing is ruled by Asia, rather than New York. Expanding markets in China, Korea and Russia are helping drive demand.

To resuscitate the business, American Legend, a cooperative of 220 North American mink ranchers, undertook advertising campaigns, hiring supermodels Cindy Crawford, Gisele Bundchen and MacPherson. They capitalized on exploding Westernization and wealth in Asia brought by a rejuvenating economy.


Article:

After soft decades, fur popularity soars

A boom in China and high-profile marketing in America are causing prices to rebound.

http://www.readingeagle.com/index.asp

The Seattle Times

SEATTLE In a drab conference room in a nondescript Renton, Wash., warehouse during the spring, an auctioneer took a podium beneath huge photos of supermodels in mink coats and fur lingerie.

Before him, dozens of men and women buzzed in a babel of foreign languages Russian and Italian, Chinese and Korean. But their common language was hanging on racks in the room next door: some 1.7 million shimmering pelts of farm-raised mink, and hundreds of thousands of wild beaver, raccoon, weasel and fox.

This is the American Legend auction, the largest remaining fur market in the United States, where $100 million in business is transacted in a few days.

After a few rough decades, fur is back. Spurred by a boom in demand from China and recent popularity at home thanks to glossy marketing, the price of American mink pelts jumped 33 percent just last year.

Yet a trade that helped put Seattle on the map today takes place largely out of view, in a heavily guarded, fenced-in warehouse protected from anti-fur protesters. And there's an entirely new unease: Two years ago, a handful of buyers from New York, Canada and China hatched a scheme to rig bids and buy hundreds of otter pelts on the cheap, according to federal prosecutors.

That led to a long-running Justice Department antitrust investigation that still may be in the works. Federal prosecutors remain mum. But class-action lawyers are circling.

And once again the fur trade faces the prospect of being drawn into an uncomfortable spotlight.

Nowadays, Denmark rules the fur industry, selling 80 percent more mink than the U.S. Garment manufacturing is ruled by Asia, rather than New York. Expanding markets in China, Korea and Russia are helping drive demand.

It wasn't always so.

Fur was becoming controversial as early as the 1960s, and by the 1980s and early 1990s it was the target of sabotage by animal-rights activists, who vandalized stores. In 1991, activists burned a small Edmonds, Wash., factory that made feed for farmed mink. All over the country, mink were sprung from their cages, and farms were raided, even torched.

In addition, there were economic troubles in Asia and a glut of furs. Prices crashed.

To resuscitate the business, American Legend, a cooperative of 220 North American mink ranchers, undertook advertising campaigns, hiring supermodels Cindy Crawford, Gisele Bundchen and MacPherson. They capitalized on exploding Westernization and wealth in Asia brought by a rejuvenating economy.

“Beginning in 1999, we tried to refocus the industry and consumers that (fur) could be an integral part of fashion,” said Steve Casotti, vice president of American Legend.

While protesters continue to commit acts of eco-sabotage, and to portray the fur industry as cruel, inhumane and unnecessary in the modern world, celebrities such as rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and pop singer and actress Jennifer Lopez are seen and photographed in mink coats. In places such as Korea, China, Russia and Turkey, the rich are driving expensive cars, wearing Rolexes and buying fur, said Alvin Glickman, a fur buyer in New York.