As Chinese President Hu Jintao met with President Bush at the White House, members of IDA and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) joined by Washington, D.C.-area activists gathered outside to screen video evidence revealing dogs and cats being skinned alive in China and call on the leader to introduce and enforce meaningful welfare standards regulating the treatment of animals within the fur industry. The protesters were among hundreds who gathered to demonstrate against human rights violations in China. Those who stopped to watch video footage from an undercover investigation of the Chinese fur industry revealing dogs and cats packed into wire cages, stacked by the thousands onto trucks and transported to be killed for their pelts were horrified. More footage shows the strangulation and electrocution of dogs and cats. Investigators witnessed and have documented the animals being skinned alive and thrown onto a pile of other skinned animals. Some continued to live for up to 10 minutes after being skinned.

A prior investigation of fur farms in China showed workers attempting to stun foxes and raccoon dogs by slamming them against the ground or bashing their heads with clubs. Such unreliable methods also left many animals fully conscious after the fur was ripped from their bodies. Fur from China - much of it unlabeled - ends up in stores all across America. 

"As the world's attention turns to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, we hope that China will honor the wishes of caring people around the world and implement less painful methods to kill 'man's best friends' and other fur bearing animals," said IDA spokesperson Kristie Phelps. 

Cruelty to animals killed for fur in China made international headlines late last year when Sir Paul McCartney announced that he would never perform in China after watching footage of dogs and cats killed for their fur. "It's like something out of the dark ages," he told the BBC. "It's just against every rule of humanity."

What You Can Do:

Please sign a petition urging the Chinese Government to pass National Animal Welfare Laws.

Please write a letter to the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. urging China to enact an animal welfare law that will prohibit the cruel handling of dogs, cats and other animals at markets and during transportation. 

His Excellency Zhou Wenzhong
Ambassador of the People's Republic of China
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
202-328-2574
202-328-2582 (fax)