Harrods staff: Animals are being treated well
STAFF at top department store Harrods have been telling customers that animals farmed for fur are kept in high-welfare conditions.
Animal welfare group Humane Society International/UK sent an undercover investigator to the world-famous West London shop.
They filmed a sales rep for designer Yves Salomon telling them foxes on fur farms are not kept in cages but in “their own private space” in “separate rooms”, “exactly like” you’d find at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.
A colleague of theirs at the store then said that when the animals are killed, “they put them down with an injection... they are literally put to sleep”.
They said the animals are “not stressed” as, like humans, “this will affect their skin and hair as it will fall off and not look good”.
A Moncler sales assistant claimed Finnish fox fur is just a by-product, saying “we take our fur from animals who were already taken for other purposes, like, for example, meat”.
The breeding of foxes for human consumption is illegal in the EU.
Claire Bass, executive director of Humane Society International/UK, said: “It’s hardly a surprise that staff in Harrods don’t want to describe the grim reality of life for animals on fur farms, because it would surely leave their customers horrified.”
Harrods sells a variety of furs including items made from Finnish fox fur.
One piece boasting of this “high-welfare” was a Max Mara cape trimmed with fox fur for £1,785.
Inside, a label read: “This garment is made with premium quality fur from Saga Furs. 100% certified. 100% traceable. 100% sustainable.”
Two of the three farms visited by the Mirror were Saga fur farms.
Harrods and Max Mara did not respond to our request for comment.
The grim reality would surely leave customers horrified