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Approximately 3.5 million fur-bearing animals--raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, lynxes, opossums, beavers, otters, and others--are killed each year for their fur by trappers in
the U.S. Another 2.7 million animals are raised on fur "farms."Ranch-raised foxes are kept in cages only 2.5 feet square (minks in cages 1-foot-by-3-feet), with up to four animals per cage. Animals can languish in traps for days. Up to 1 out of every 4 trapped animals escapes by chewing off his or her own feet, only to die later from blood loss, fever, gangrene, or predation.
Every year, thousands of dogs, cats, raptors, and other so-called "trash" animals (including endangered species like the bald eagle) are crippled or killed by traps.  To kill the animals without damaging their fur, trappers usually strangle, beat, or stomp them to death. Animals on fur
farms may be gassed, electrocuted, poisoned with strychnine, or have their necks snapped. These methods are not 100 percent effective and some animals "wake up" while being skinned.
According to a study by the Ford Motor Company, it takes almost three times as much energy to make a coat from trapped animals' pelts--and 40 times as much from ranch-raised furs--than it does to make a fake fur coat.
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