When people buy clothes with fur they don’t really think about the millions of animals that have had to suffer and go through the painful abuse of having their fur stripped from them, just so people could wear their fine, soft hair on their clothing.

Every year, more than 150 billion animals are slaughtered, and 50 million of those animals are killed for their fur. Every day, animals are already brutally killed for crazy reasons, such as for their meat and for experimentation, but also having to be killed for our own aspiration of fashion is preposterous.

Many of these animals that are used and bred for clothing are sheep, foxes, minks, chinchillas, and rabbits.

Animals are captured in many inhumane methods and traps, but one of the most common traps used is the steel-jaw trap. The steel-jaw trap is a trap that slams shut on the animal’s limb causing it excruciating pain as it cuts deep into their flesh, often down to their bone, while they struggle to get free. Some animals, such as mothers, may attempt to chew off their trapped limbs, and they’ll attempt to do anything they can to escape and get to their young ones.

While they are trapped, animals can suffer for days from blood loss, dehydration, and they may also get attacked by other predators.

But the torture doesn’t stop there. The animals are then transported to fur farms where they may never see the light of day and, in most cases, will probably die. Many of them are taken there to be raised and breed as well. Most of the fur farms in the world are within China, which is the world’s largest fur exporter, producing more than half of the fur garments imported in the United States.

On the fur farms, animals are packed into unbearably small cages to cut costs, taking away their ability to move around or mate with other animals. Animals suffer from injuries, physical deformities, and psychological problems. Many of them go insane and some even end up mutilating themselves and cannibalize and attack other animals that are locked up as well. The cages are often lined up in dark and filthy sheds or farms. Mothers that are expecting, are driven insane from rough handling and they often kill their babies after delivering.

Animals are handled roughly in the process of getting their fur and the cheapest methods are used. No anesthetics are used, so animals suffer through pure pain and torture. There is a great deal of evidence of animals getting skinned alive while they bleed to death and struggle to stay awake in despair and agony.

One of the products that is widely consumed is wool, but many people don’t question about how it is obtained. Before we started crossbreeding sheep to grow and produce more wool than normal, they used to only grow enough to keep themselves warm from the cold. Because of this selective breeding, they have excessive amount of hair, and many of the sheep die from overheating and fly strike, a condition in which larvae eat away the tissue of the animal.

There is no federal law that protects animals on fur farms, so farmers can kill animals anyway they want because their priority is protecting the quality of the fur.

Animals don’t have a voice, can’t stand up for themselves, and it’s unfair that they are taken advantage of every day. People can raise awareness by not buying any more animal products and by spreading the word about the real stories that go on behind the closed doors on fur farms.