Chinese animal rights activists on Tuesday welcomed a proposal by the European Union to ban imports of cat and dog fur, saying it would help pressure the government to enact better legal protections for animals.
The European Union proposed the ban Monday on the sale and import of dog and cat fur in all 25 member nations. Markos Kyprianou, the European Commission's consumer protection commissioner, said cats and dogs were being kept in cages and slaughtered in cruel and shocking conditions for their fur.
Campaigners say millions of animals are bred for their fur _ mostly in China and other Asian nations.
"I think it (the proposal) will help, it's a very important signal to the Chinese government and there's no way they can't notice it," said Zhang Dan, a Beijing-based journalist who is vice chairman for the China Small Animal Protection Association.
"Many animal rights volunteers in China are trying to spread the news of what's happening here and I hope people in the West will notice too," she said.
Zhang and other rights activists say Chinese merchants beat the cats and dogs to death and even flay them alive for their skins.
To back his call, the EU's Kyprianou showed gruesome videos of dogs being bludgeoned or cut open to bleed to death, and cats in cages being strangled by wire nooses.
Zhang said she had seen similar videos, including footage of a market in southern China where live cats were thrown into boiling water to kill them and prepare them for skinning.
Humane Society International estimates 2 million cats and dogs are killed for their fur each year, with an estimated 5,400 killed in China each day.
A ban on dog and cat fur has been in place in the United States since 2000, but activists complain that labeling is not required on items costing less than US$150 (�116).
Activists say cat and dog fur is mainly used for lining gloves, as trim on boots and coats or to cover animal figurines.
One Chinese trader said, however, that most exporters would prefer to use domestic rabbit fur for trim or in toys because it's cheaper.
"Rabbit is the cheapest fur in China," said Liu Ning, a trader with Furshion, a fur import-export business based in north China's Hebei province. "If they are using cat or dog instead of rabbit, it doesn't make sense economically."
Liu said that rabbit skins in China cost between 8 and 30 yuan (US$1-US$4; �0.77-�3), while cat pelts sell for 15 yuan (US$2; �1.5) and dog pelts cost about 50 yuan (US$6; �4.6).
More often, cat or dog fur is dyed and passed off as other types of more expensive fur, Liu said.
Liu said that his company wouldn't be affected if the ban goes into effect because it doesn't export cat or dog fur.
Kyprianou said the fur trade's secretive nature makes it hard to estimate how much dog and cat fur finds its way onto the market, or pinpoint its source.
A woman who answered the phone at the Chinese Association of Fur Professionals refused to give any figures for the amount of fur China exports every year and said the association had no comment on the proposed ban.
The woman, who would only give her surname Liu, said that cat and dog fur exports are "just a small part" of China's total fur exports.
Yang Jianzhong, a sales manager with the Liushi Leather Plant in Hebei province said that his company exported dog and rabbit fur _ but only to South Korea, so the proposed EU ban wouldn't affect their business. He refused to say how much fur they exported every year.
Zhang said concerns about animal welfare are growing rapidly in China as more people own pets, but that the country still lacks basic legal protections for animals.
The association, which has about 6,000 members, is trying to use the 2008 Olympics as leverage to pressure the government into enacting an anti-cruelty law and an animal rights protection law, arguing that a failure to do so would sully China's image during the games.
Poverty and isolation are the main reasons that animals in China are not treated as well as they are in some other countries, she said.
"We don't have a tradition to treat animals as equal living creatures," Zhang said. "In rural areas, many people don't know animal rights ... Animals are just seen as labor, a family owned property they can use any way they want. They think the animals' existence is just for making money.
Liu, the trader, said that getting rid of China's cat and dog fur trade will mainly depend on measures like the proposed ban, which will curb overseas demand.
"If the European Union and American don't like cat and dog fur and don't use them, then China's businessmen won't produce them," he said. "But if they use them, there is a market and they will make them."
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