Clothes made of cat fur were found being sold in Victoria, despite the Australian government’s assurance of shutting down the practice, according to an advocacy group.
A Collective Fashion Justice and Animal Justice Party investigation revealed that vests for children with cat fur were sold, claiming to be fake fur or sheep wool.
Forensic testing revealed the vest sold by fashion brand Suttons UGG was made of domestic cat fur and rabbit fur. However, the vest was labelled as “100 per cent Australian sheepskin or wool”.
Also, two pom-pom beanies sold at a Queen Victoria market in inner Melbourne were discovered to be fakely labelled as 100 per cent “acrylic”. A test by British fibre analysis firm Microtex revealed they were made from fox and raccoon dog fur.
The findings of cat fur sales have prompted demands from animal welfare groups and the Animal Justice Party for a state-wide prohibition on the sale of all animal fur. The Australian Fashion Council, in a move early this year, prohibited the use of fur, wild-animal hides, and wild feathers on runways.
“Every Victorian would be shocked to know that they could go to the store and accidentally buy something made from cat fur, when they may have a cat at home themselves,” Collective Fashion Justice founder Emma Hakansson said.
Suttons UGG, which has retail stores in Sydney and Melbourne, in a statement to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, admitted the label on the vest was “wrong”.
A spokesperson told the broadcaster they had been informed by the manufacturer that the vest was made from a “kind of special fur”, and the company could not “100 per cent confirm” whether that included cat.
The Australian government prohibited importing and exporting dog and cat fur in 2004. In 2020, a Consumer Affairs Victoria investigation into the fur products being mislabelled discovered that all products tested by the taskforce individually were incorrectly labelled.
Soon after this incident, fur sellers were warned.
Georgie Purcell, the Animal Justice Party MP for Northern Victoria, has demanded the banning of cat fur sales.
“The message from the community couldn’t be clearer – fur is out of fashion. Whether it’s cat, dog, rabbit, or fox – the one constant is that it’s all cruel,” she said.
“The time for regulation is done. The only thing left to do is to completely ban fur, just as other jurisdictions around the world have already done.”
