San Francisco has voted to ban the sale of fur, joining California’s West Hollywood and Berkeley in taking a stand against this cruel and unnecessary industry.
The City’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously this week to enact the legislation, which will take effect from January 1st 2019. The ban covers the sale of clothing and accessories made of real fur, including coats, key chains and gloves. It even goes so far as to ban fur items that are purchased online from being delivered to a San Francisco address.
“The sale of fur products in San Francisco is inconsistent with the City’s ethos of treating all living beings, humans and animals alike, with kindness,” said San Francisco district supervisor Katy Tang.
San Francisco is ahead of the curve in its positive attitude to animal rights and welfare, with Tang already leading the city to ban exotic animal performances and prohibiting pet shops from selling cats and dogs that are not from shelters and rescue centers.
Animal activist groups applauded this decision, praising the city for its forward thinking.
“Supervisor Tang and San Francisco are leading the way in making a more compassionate world for animals,” said Wayne Hsiung, co-founder of animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere. “This historic act will usher in a new wave of animal rights legislation across the globe.”
However, retailers protested the move, saying that there should have been a citywide public vote. There are around 50 retailers that will be affected by the new legislation. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce says that fur sales in the city total about $40 million every year.
Every year, more than 40 million animals are killed for fur. Thirty million come from fur farms and a further ten million are trapped and killed in the wild.
“Fur is a luxury item. Fur is not essential to human health or well-being,” said Andrew Linzey, an ethicist from Oxford University and author of Why Animal Suffering Matters. “Causing suffering for fur is morally beyond the pale.”
Eighty-five percent of the fur skins in the industry are sourced from animals that are factory farmed – they are kept in crowded conditions with no regard for animal welfare.
“Many European countries have banned or are in the process of phasing out some or all fur farming based largely on the understanding that it is impossible to raise fur-bearing animals in captive conditions that adequately ensure their welfare while maintaining financial viability,” states Born Free USA.
With major fashion labels Gucci, Stella McCartney, Giorgio Armani, Hugo Boss, Versace and more all recently promising to go fur-free, the anti-fur movement is gaining ground worldwide and we hope other cities follow in the footsteps of animal-loving San Francisco.
Cheers Frisco !!! Well done ! May other cities and countries follow suit !
ABOUT TIME WE GET SOME GOOD NEWS!!! HOORAY!!!
A positive step; thank you!
“IF ALL THE WORLD WOULD “BAN” THESE “DASTARDLY” ACTIONS ON “HIS”CREATIONS…WHAT A WONDERFULL WORLD IT COULD BE… “CHEERS/CONGRATULATIOS”….. “GOD BLESS SAN-FRANCISCO”!!!!!
Hopefully all states will follow their lead! No reason to kill animals for their fur, extremely cruel
Chick, there is NO need of using fur like God intended because we are in the 21st. century, we do not live in caverns! So this sadistic cruelty should NEVER happened!!!
WONDERFUL NEWS!!!
God sees all and waits. People who torture and kill animals…or children born or unborn…will pay the price. The callous disregard for the pain inflicted on our fellow living beings has a boomerang effect.
Chick,
WHY are you even on this post? Obviously you couldn’t care less about this issue!!!
All the ppl i know that believe in God, none of them believe God is for torturing animals.
Why do ppl want to wear fur anyway? A bunch of them just look like fuzzy apes or bears or something.
Disgusting. This should’ve been stopped long ago.
Synthetic materials use oil and gas to manufacture them. This uses our non-renewable enery resources and pollutes the world. Leather and fur has bern used for clothing sonce the beginning of time, as God intended, when he gave man dominion over the animals.
You are misinterpreting “dominion.” It does not mean exploitation and abuse, but rather a caretaking role. Jesus never abused animals, and God would never condone it. Jesus in fact liberated animals from human “dominion” when he drove the money changers from the temple.
Chick, don’t pick and choose what you want from the Bible. Bottom line is Christ practiced love. Love does not include cruelty. Instead of misinterpretating His message why don’t you work on your compassion for all living things. Fur is unnecessary in this day and age. Are you one of those dumdums who wears a wool hat with a pompon on top? It seems to be all the rage this winter. Animals should not be tortured for such frivolous bullshit.
The leather industry is far more polluting !!! We have to stop the pain and suffering in this world, don’t you think ?
Great San Francisco ! Thanks !
Well done San Francisco!!! The furriers can take a hike.
“…retailers protested the move…” Heartless psychopaths! Profits should never never never be above an animal’s life. And all those who support these cruel industries with their dollars share equally in the blame. NOBODY needs to wear the skin of another species.
OUTRAGE ??? YOU SICK STUPID SON OF ABITCH -BILIONS ON BILIONS OF POOR ANIMALS SKINED ALIE FOR YOUR BELOVED FUR -GET THE FUCK OFF PSYCHIATIC CASE !!!
You are wrong about being skinned alive. You are one brave waste of skin, hiding behind a computer and calling me names. What do you think will be usedfor cloths when all the oil and gas supplies have been depleted?
THANK YOU SO MUCH -SAN FARNCISCO !!!
Now to see if the great hypocrite city of SF creates a “Seize & Fine on view” ordinance that will be applied within city limits. You know for a fact all that hollywood money buys the great majority of fur overseas, from the fur industries of Scandinavia and Russia.
This is all show – but at least a few minor fur retailers will be shut down in SF.
Yay San Francisco, Berkeley and West Hollywood. Now for the rest of the world. People faux fur is the way to go. Btw God does exist.
Charles, I will never accept that God sanctified the cruelty that you seem to promote indirectly as a byproduct of the unnecessary wearing of fur. You are on the right site. Keep reading. I’m glad that you’re here.
Harvest can be accomplished humanely
But rarely is. Your choice of words is interesting. You speak of “harvesting” animals as you would crops. The correct term with respect to animals is “kill.”
Your words echo my thoughts, brilliant coment. ..very powerful and heartfelt.
Very proud that a person like can speak for the animals, well done and thank you xx
Yay!! Thank you San Francisco. I hope so much that other cities will follow your wonderful example. Thank you!
That is fantastic news! Finally a fur-free city taking a stand and leading the helm of this decades-old debated issue.
There is no humane way to harvest fur.
Wild animals, hundreds of thousands a month, are caught on trap lines (largely in Canada where animal rights regulations rank among the poorest in the developed world) which use the archaic and cruel foot-hold clamp trap, leaving wild animals, such as coyotes, to languish for days without food or water in debilitating pain, often leaving their young to starve to death. Sometimes nursing mothers will chew off their feet to free themselves.
London’s Daily Mail bravely released disturbing undercover footage of coyotes suffering on Canada’s trap lines for the popular selling name-brand Canada Goose’s jacket fur trim.
Other wild animals such a seals, also in Canada, are beaten or skinned alive by the tens of thousands a year. They can’t be shot as this will devalue their pelts.
Brave activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have filmed thousands of hours of footage available for viewing on YouTube — if you can stomach it. Conversely, “farmed” animals live their short lives without proper vetinary care, sunlight, limited food or clean water in severely cramped wire-floor cages, with often not enough room to turn around.
All of these fur-harvesting methods are industries that are fraught with cruelty and corruption with little or no oversight.
Reading this may just be mere words, but I dare anyone who has witnessed these horrors first-hand to not be moved enough to turn away from fur products that are no longer needed for warmth when many other products available far exceed in warmth and light-weight than that of fur.
Tamara Goertz, Freelance News Journalist — Calgary, Canada
I totally disagree. Harvest can be humane.
Charles,do you even know how animals are factory farmed for their fur? they are imprison in cages,never a day of freedom outside,not fed or given enough water regularly,they go crazy inside of the cages day after day,they spent their whole life in a cage,with nothing to do but run around in circles.they mutilate themself, much like if they put you away in a crate you would react the same way.Most of these animals are skinned alive! imagine the horror! You truly need to empathy toward animals.Nobody needs to wear fur anymore.there are other alternatives. Get yourself a micro puff jacket from Patagonia .or a down jacket from a humane source.come join us in the 21st century.
Yes, I know all about it.
The animals are not skinned alive. Probably a few isolated cases, but it is not a practice.
God (who has never scientifically been proven ever existed) was one cruel creature then hey, a natural source? You seriously have been brainwashed! Have you seen how these animals are treated??? Look up the word humane. Its ecstatic news for animal lovers across the globe, slowly but surely the pain is fading…..
Brilliant news if it’s true everywhere should ban fur it’s a totally cruel barbaric and unnecessary practice what these animals go through for the sake of so called boring media invented fashion makes me sick no animal should suffer for this or anything else ie beauty jewelry or medicine entertainment or for the fun of it in some cases they all deserve love care compassion and respect that said fur should only be worn by beautiful animals not ugly people
This is a step in the right direction….I hope others follow.
This is a outrage! Fur and leather has been a natural source of clothing and utility since the beginning of time. Synthetics use oil and gas to manufacture, which depletes our energy sources and pollutes the environment. That leaves cotton, and cotton only, which is not suffiecient for all needs. There are ways to humanely harvest animals for use, as God intended.
I knew my City by the Bay would come through!!!
I hope this Anti fur story is true?Faux is better and looks lovely.
Kudo’s to San Francisco. I hope this inspires the same for every city and state in the union