Secret Search Led to Discovery of Dog Fur in U.S. Clothing

It took some searching, but Richard Swain found the coat he was looking for last month at a store in Greenbelt, Md. The black, fur-trimmed parka resembled others on the racks, but the tag was unsettling. It said the trim was “Mongolia Dog Fur.”

The find was a coup for Swain, chief investigator for the Humane Society of the United States, which is wrapping up an 18-month undercover probe into what it says is an extensive worldwide trade in the pelts of domesticated dogs. The tag offered the first hard evidence that dog products had entered the U.S. market.

In a report out Tuesday, the Humane Society says that the fur is used to make everything from stuffed toys to parkas like the one purchased at Burlington Coat Factory in Greenbelt--but that the labels almost never reveal the source of the fur. Suspected dog-fur products have been found nationwide, investigators said, including in a gift shop at Reagan National Airport.

The Humane Society’s investigation persuaded Burlington to pull hundreds of coats from its stores last week.

Burlington Coat Factory executives said a Texas supplier duped them and gave them 480 coats lined with dog fur instead of coyote, as ordered. The chain, with 225 stores in 42 states, said that it is nearly impossible to confirm the makeup of every garment.

“We never thought nor suspected such a thing could happen; we were quite shocked and horrified,” said Stacy J. Haigney, Burlington’s general attorney. “This is a tragic situation, and we wish we could make it not happen worldwide.”

Animals Were Killed by ‘Gruesome Means’

The Humane Society, which opposes use of all animal fur, says merchants in Asia have been killing dogs--and cats--in ways that are especially cruel and that go far beyond what U.S. fur industry officials say are commonly accepted methods. The Humane Society says its investigators, posing as U.S. fur importers, infiltrated factories and warehouses, videotaping killings and obtaining documents indicating transfers of furs by the ton. At least 2 million dogs and cats are being killed for fur each year, the group estimates.

“While we expected that some dogs and cats were being killed for fur, we had no idea the numbers reached into the millions,” said Patricia Forkan, the executive vice president who oversaw the investigation, which started in early 1997. “We were even more horrified by the exceedingly inhumane conditions in which the animals lived and by the gruesome means by which they died.”

The group commissioned DNA tests to try to confirm that products being sold in the United States contain dog fur. Although much of the fur had been processed too much to yield conclusive results, according to the scientist who did the tests, a Burlington coat purchased in New Jersey tested positive for canine DNA, as did fur-covered figurines bought at a National Airport gift shop. A sample from the coat bought in Greenbelt, which carried the same label and was the same style as the New Jersey coat, did not contain enough pristine DNA to reach a conclusion.

A test that comes back positive for canine DNA indicates that the product was made from a dog or a wolf, but Humane Society and fur industry officials both said they doubt that wolf is being used for coats because the species is endangered.

The Humane Society said it found no clear evidence that cat-fur products are being sold in the United States. But the group said that it documented shipments of tabby cat coats to the Russian republics and Germany and that it plans to have DNA tests on several suspect items bought in the United States.

No federal law prohibits the import of cat and dog fur or its use in garments, and only California has a state ban. Additionally, garment manufacturers are not required to declare the type of animal used for furs valued at less than $150, and so, Humane Society officials said, it is impossible to pinpoint how much dog and cat fur may be coming into the country. Many garments assembled in or shipped to other countries find their way into U.S. markets, often with false or misleading labels, the society officials said.

Swain, a retired Montgomery County, Md., police captain, said that on his first trip to China in February 1997, a man who said he was a government minister tried to ease the ersatz businessman’s concerns about labeling dog and cat fur.

“I’ll put any label in it you want,” Swain said he was told.

A Chinese fur merchant for Henan Animal By-Products Import & Export Co. in Zheng Zhou advised Swain in a June 1998 memo that “grey dog skin[s] are called As[i]atic ra[c]coon, yellow dog skin[s] are called corsac fox and cat skin[s] are called wild cat by USA people. You may use these [names] for your order.” The memo confirms the order of 15 sample garments priced from $105 to $125.

In a memo two months later to Swain, Da Yuan, president of the company’s Lucky Star Ltd. subsidiary in New Milford, N.J., said Henan “hopes to do business with you in the line of fur products. It is quite a good idea to pay attention to low price fur products in the U.S. market, such as As[i]atic raccoon garments, corsac fox garments or mountain cat products.”

In a telephone interview Monday, Yuan denied that Henan deals in cat and dog fur, saying that “some people are trying to spread rumors.”

He said that his company deals in wool carpets, not pelts.

“Even though it is not illegal, some people think it’s inappropriate,” he said. “But still, we haven’t done this. Some people are against the fur products.”

Yu Shuning, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said, “The Chinese people do not have the tradition of using cats and dogs as materials for [the] fur industry. Therefore, the allegations of the Humane Society of the United States . . . [are] not in conformity with the real situation.”

Humane Society’s Timing Questioned

Teresa Platt, executive director of Fur Commission USA in California, was reluctant to criticize the use of dogs or cats for fur because the practices might be viewed less harshly in other cultures. She also questioned the timing of the report, whose release coincides with the Humane Society’s fur-free holidays campaign.

“It is the fund-raising season for a variety of groups and each year seems to get a little more sensational. Not that it couldn’t be legitimate,” Platt said. She suggested that the practices documented by the Humane Society may be illegal even in the countries where they were videotaped and that they may be atypical even there.

Stephanie Kenyon, the fur council’s spokeswoman, said the sale of dog and cat fur is “distasteful to think about.”

Kenyon said she “can’t imagine” that a buyer for a department store would knowingly buy such items.