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Ministers accused of 'animal and electoral treason' after refusing to change the law Much of the fur imported into the UK comes from China. The government appears to have backed down on its promise to ban fur imports after months of dithering, sparking outrage from animal lovers and experts.
Responding this week to a petition calling for a ban on imports of often torturous overseas fur farms, the government said it had no plans to change the law.
Humane Society International-UK, which has been pushing for years to end fur sales, has accused ministers of betraying animals and the British public.
Fur farming has been illegal in the UK since 2003, but the country still imports large quantities of fur each year, from centers where the conditions have repeatedly been shown to inflict extreme suffering.
More than £670m worth of animal fur has been imported into the UK in 20 years, according to official figures.
While Boris Johnson was at number 10, a ban was promised in the Foreign Animals Bill, which the government later scrapped after Cabinet members Jacob Rees-Mogg, Brandon Lewis and Ben Wallace had vetoed.
In 2021, the government published an official call for evidence on Britain's fur trade, but did not publish all 30,000 responses.
Several reports have suggested the ban be lifted, but last month the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) issued a statement denying that the government has taken a radical turn, blaming limited parliamentary time for a lack of progress. .
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It is already illegal to import cat, dog and seal fur. Now, through a government petition, an official response has been issued, which says: “The current government policy is to maintain the existing fur measures. Whilst Defra has published an official call for evidence on the fur trade from Britain in 2021, we currently have no plans to make any further changes.
Claire Bass, from Humane Society International–UK, said: “More than three-quarters of the British public support a ban on cruel and dangerous fur imports, but the government is simply not listening.
“Instead, it seems happy to remain complicit in a global trade that causes suffering to millions of animals, that are raised in factory farm conditions that lead to the spread of disease, and may well be implicated in the next global pandemic.
"It's a betrayal of both animals and voters, and a sign of a government that underestimates the extent to which Britons won't take no for an answer when it comes to tackling animal cruelty."
Lorraine Platt, co-founder of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, said the government's response was very disappointing. “We want to see the end of overseas fur farms,” he said.
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"I hope parliamentarians will talk to the government about this."
She said that with three private members' bills on animal welfare currently in Parliament, the message her group was hearing was "You are never satisfied."
Many buyers unknowingly buy furs, thinking they are fake. Real fur is usually less expensive than faux fur because it costs so little to mass-raise animals in crowded and dirty conditions.
Images and eyewitness accounts from inside fur farms have shown minks, raccoon dogs and foxes suffering painful, infected wounds and mental torture from being caged.
Labor MP Mohammad Yasin told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the government had done nothing to tackle "abhorrent" global trade.
Defra minister Trudy Harrison said the government was considering responding to the request for evidence and was still gathering evidence, which "will be used to inform any future action on the fur trade."
Former British Fur Trade Association chief executive Mike Moser has also made a U-turn and is now campaigning to ban fur in the UK.
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