ARFF - Animal Friendly Living


	Fur The fashion industry frequently portrays fur coats and fur trim as symbols of elegance. But the industry fails to show the not-so- elegant ways the original owners of these coats met their gruesome deaths.
	Each year, millions of fur-bearing animals— including foxes, raccoons, minks, coyotes, bobcats, lynx, chinchillas, opossums, beavers, otters, and rabbits— lose their lives due to the vanity of humans. On fur ranches they are electrocuted, gassed, clubbed, killed in decompression chambers, and have their necks broken. In the wild they are killed by drowning, strangling, trapping, stomping or beating. Consumers need to know that every fur coat, lining or item of trim represents the intense suffering of these once beautiful animals. Their slaughter will end only when the public refuses to buy or wear fur. Click here to download ARFF's fur brochure (PDF file). Help spread the word, for the animals' sake.

	Leather Every year, millions of cows and other animals suffer hideous cruelties before being slaughtered to produce leather clothes, shoes or sofas. Most leather comes from cows killed by the beef and dairy industries. These animals are forced to endure the horrors of factory farming— intense confinement, painful mutilations, deprivation and cruel handling— before being shipped off to the slaughterhouse. Despite popular belief, leather is not a mere by-product of factory farming. Rather, it is a booming industry which generates a significant profit. Every time you choose to buy leather, you sentence an animal to a lifetime of suffering and are directly contributing to factory farming. With the hundreds of cruelty free, comfortable, and fun alternatives to leather there is little justification for continuing to buy products made of the skin of an animal.

	Wool Many assume that wool harvesting causes little discomfort for sheep. However, like other animals who are commercially farmed for profit, sheep are handled, transported, and killed with little regard fo their suffering.
	Within weeks of their birth, lambs are mutilated and castrated without anesthetics. To prevent maggot infestation, ranchers restrain live sheep and without any pain relief, slice strips of flesh from their backsides ("mulesing"). During shearing, sheep are violently tied up and wool is cut with sharp shears at speeds that often result in injuries. Many are sheared with mechanical devices that ignore body parts that might be in the way. Following this gruesome process sheep are left unprotected from the elements and many die from exposure. Consumer demand allows this cruel industry to flourish. By making compassionate choices like buying clothing and accessories made from stylish and warm fabric other than wool, you can help to save sheep from barbaric treatment.