Fur Is Evil

May 9, 2009. A search on Google.com for “dog skin” (in Chinese)  yields a sponsored AdWords text ad for “dog skin”, or “dog fur” (the two words are the same in Chinese). In the poster above, you can see the search result with the AdWords ad.

Clicking on the advertisement takes you to Alibaba.com’s “dog skin/fur” section, where one can find dozens of sellers of dog skins, each of whom can provide thousands of skins.

Among the many photos one finds on that first page (of dog skins, dogs in pens awaiting their fate, skinned torsos hanging on hooks, etc), you will see the the photo in the poster above, of a pile of dog skins.

Before publishing this post, I tried the search several times. Each time yielded the same AdWords ad for “dog skin” and the page the ad referred to continued to show the same results, including this particular seller.

I’d seen the photo several times before I started to see a telling detail.

At the bottom of the photo, you can see the head and upper torso of a puppy.

Likely buried under his or her own mother’s skin, this puppy’s corpse skin-for-sale is a SINGLE “AdWords” CLICK away from Google.com’s home page (Not Google.cn, mind you. I searched in Chinese on GOOGLE.com, which, the last time I checked, is an American company.)

Such an advertisement would be illegal in the USA. (See the statute which outlaws dog and cat fur. Also see the HSUS’s page on this issue.)

Google, we implore you stop advertising fur!!!

In regards to free speech and human rights, Google did a great thing today. It announced that it will no longer actively participate with the Chinese Communist Party in censoring online content on Google.cn.

On behalf of many friends who work and live in China, thank you for at least taking steps to recognize the rights of human beings to free speech.

As for Google’s unfortunate and continuing role in the fur business, it is too soon to tell whether Google’s potential departure from China will reduce its role in advertising the products of the China-based fur business horrors you can see on this site.

I hope so.

Going to repost this graphic, since nothing has changed with Google’s policy on fur since it was first posted.

There is no excuse for this. Arguments such as “the ads are automated” is NOT a moral excuse for the COO of the HSUS to allow fur ads to appear on his blog!!!

If the COO of the Humane Society of the United States does not immediately demand the complete removal of fur ads from his HuffPo blog, I hereby call for his resignation from the Humane Society and will start an online petition to gather support for this. THERE IS NO EXCUSE!

Anyone who writes a blog with FUR ADS ON IT has no business getting paid a salary by a humane society in this country.

Mr. Markarian, if you and Arianna Huffington remain silent and refuse to tell Google “STOP IT!”, then tell me how are you any more ethical than fur farmers who skin those animals alive? You’re just helping to sell their skins, right?

Your fellow Washington insider, Ms. Huffington, could do a great deed for the dogs, cats, raccoon dogs, lynx, leopard cats, foxes and dozens of other species currently sacrificing their skin for Google’s barbaric bottom line.

She could tell Google: “NO! STOP!”

She could remove Google ads from her website entirely.

She take a moral action in defense of helpless animals in cages who face horrors.

The COO of the HSUS, Michael Markarian, has a blog on the Huffington Post.

And the blog is peddling fur.

Let me rephrase: A Blog by the COO of the Humane Society of the United States is selling fur.

There is no excuse for this.

There is no excuse for continued inaction about this issue.

The HSUS has been aware of Google’s role in the fur trade for almost 6 months now. But they have continued to remain silent about it. They continue to blast Chinese fur farmers while letting American companies like Google and media outlets like Huffington Post and the New York Times off the hook.

If the HSUS cares about the fur animals of the world, its COO would not allow his blog to become a fur-selling platform.

I don’t see why Huffingon Post is any morally different from a fur farmer who skins an animal alive. They’re both making money off the same act of violence against a sentient being.

I think the HSUS should immediately sanction the Huffington Post until the Huffington Post stops selling fur for Google’s clients.

And, if perchance, Markarian or the HSUS gets paid anything from the HP for blogging there, then HSUS is now in the fur trade too!

Right now, the advertising of skins of dogs and cats have and continue to profit Google. These dog and cat skins come almost exclusively from a country, China, where it is perfectly legal and common to skin animals alive for their fur.

I cannot believe that the vast majority of Google’s employees, managers and stockholders could possibly wish to profit from the skins of cats and dogs.

I cannot believe this will continue.

But as long as Google advertises ANY fur (unless China should suddenly outlaw the dog/cat fur trade), there will be dog and cat fur profiting Google’s bottom line.

I personally make no distinction between any of the fur-bearing animals, but I’m going to make a wild guess that many Google stakeholders loves dogs and/or cats almost as much as they love their own human friends, and have special emotional bonds with dogs and/or cats.

Google is a smart company which has demonstrated the ability in the past to say, “Oops, we made a mistake.”

Right now, Google is making a huge mistake by not acting immediately to stop profiting from a form of animal exploitation that

- makes most people sick.

- encourages flaying animals alive.

- consumes not only traditional fur industry animals, but also millions of cats and dogs — animals which are considered friends not food by the people of the United States of America, Google’s home country.

- encourages the disastrous worldwide trade in endangered species. At least one seller of leapard cat skins which uses Google’s advertising network has admitted in writing to us that they DO NOT have an export license for the thousands of dead animals they are trying to sell online.

- encourages the growth of an unregulated factory farming system that is nothing less than enormous petri dish for potentially deadly viral epidemics. Asymptomatic SARS-like viruses were found in three animals: Humans, palm civet cats and raccoon dogs. Raccoon dogs are a huge part of the Chinese fur industry right now. The conditions in which they are kept, the manner in which they are slaughtered are so disturbing, most people can’t stomach to watch it.

Google has shown great interest in helping protect humanity from deadly diseases.

Shutting off the fur industry profit stream at Google would be a great way to start.

Google, please do the right thing.

If anyone at Google loves dogs or cats — trapped in fur industry cages right now — I should hope they would ask:

“If that were my dog or cat, could I sleep at night knowing that I am profiting from the marketing of his or her skin on Google.com?”

CONSIDER THIS:

My Chinese friends rescue dogs and cats in China. They work their butts off, spending every dime they have, all their blood, sweat and tears to save these animals.

And yet, with the click on one single Google fur ad, you can reach sellers of dog skin who promise to provide THOUSANDS of “fresh” skins within just 10 days. (“Fresh” means killed to order.)

Behind a single Google fur ad, there are enough fur farm dogs to negate the quantity of work done by every animal rescue organization I’ve ever known here.

Do you know what needs to be done to deliver a thousand dog skins in a little under two weeks? Think about it.

You can only deliver thousands of fresh dog skins to a customer within 10 days by methods of slaughter which are so inhumane, it could give you nightmares for the rest of your life.

Remember, it’s not just the blood and gore. It’s the emotional terror too.

To see small animals — dogs and cats just like the ones you keep as companion animals — frightened, desperately looking for a way out, even appealing to the very same men and women who are going to skin them alive.

Here is a direct quote from from a fur farmer I spoke to just a couple months ago:

“After you skin them, sometimes they don’t die right away. They still try to escape.”

Google, I implore you: Help change the world!

Stop profiting from horrific cruelty!

Dear Global Viral Forecasting Initiative,

Google’s commitment to preventing viral pandemics has been demonstrated by their monetary support of your Global Viral Forecasting Initiative.

Well, here is a forecast for you:

Fur farms are viral disease farms.

• Fur farming is intensive factory farming.

• The cages are small. Conditions are filthy, unhygienic and inhumane.

• In China, the fur business is engaged in unregulated cross-breeding on a scale probably never before seen in history.
• SARS may very well have come from a raccoon dog, and the conditions of raccoon dog fur farming in China is something which should give the GVFI pause.

These places are epidemiological cesspools.

They skin animals alive. Do you think an operation that skins animals alive has much concern for hygiene? Or for monitoring disease-spread among the animals it skins alive?

One of the few suspects for a natural reservoir of the SARS virus that jumped to humans is the raccoon dog.

Even if you don’t care about the suffering other species, from a viral-prevention point of view, Google’s advertising for the fur industry is absurd.

As a prominent recipient of funding from Google.org, and an expert in viral epidemics, could you please ask Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, to stop supporting the fur industry, and to ban fur from its global advertising network?

Please help if you can.

Google’s commitment to preventing viral pandemics is demonstrated by their monetary support of the new Global Viral Forecasting Initiative.

Here’s a forecast for you: Fur Farming = Viral Disease Farming.

• Fur farming is intensive factory farming.

• The cages are small. Conditions are filthy, unhygienic and inhumane.

• In China, the fur business is engaged in completely unregulated cross-breeding on a scale probably never before seen in history.
• SARS may very well have come from a raccoon dog, and the conditions of raccoon dog fur farming in China is something which should the WHO and GVFI pause.

Will Google be embarrassed if a future viral pandemic starts from an unregulated, inhumane fur farm that just happens to be a client of theirs?

Google, we implore you: for the sake of human health, stop profiting from fur farming!