Going into 2017, Dundrum Shopping Centre still has no fur-free policy. We have visited over the Christmas season and have seen real fur bobbles, fur trim jackets, and real fur coats being sold at Dundrum Shopping Centre.

We emailed our concerns to info@dundrum.ie to which they replied they would "bring up our concerns" during their next management meeting. After a few weeks, we emailed again to see if they had brought it up in their meeting, like they said they would, and then shockingly received an email back simply stating "Ah Jesus like" - and that is all we ever heard back from them. The email was incredibly disappointing and unprofessional to say the least. 

The issue of selling real fur should be taken seriosuly. Over 50 million animals are killed each year on fur farms. 85% of fur comes from fur factory farms. The animals who are not killed in fur farms are trapped and killed in the wild.  

The species of animals murdered by the fur trade every year include mink, fox, rabbit, chinchilla, raccoon, coyote, sable and wolf. Even cats and dogs are used - many of whom are skinned alive.
 
Mink are kept in filthy cages, with a floor space equivalent of just 2 shoe boxes in size. They have no access to water, even though they are semi-aquatic animals. Their diet consists of liquidised fish organs, which they are forced to consume by licking it through the top of their cages. They are forced to live with, and beside, other mink, despite being solitary creatures by nature. This, coupled with the stress of confinement, results in stereotypical psychosis - repetitive behaviour, self-harm, and cannibalism. At 6 months of age, they are gassed to death, usually by carbon monoxide. 40 mink are put into the ‘killing box’ at a time, which often leads to them being unconscious, not dead, when they are skinned.

Foxes are kept in cages just 1 metre square (2 fox per cage). They are killed by electrocution - utilising a 12 volt car battery with a transformer of 200 volts. Electrodes are clamped to their mouth while rods are inserted into their rectum and an extremely painful death ensues.

Despite what the fur industry claims, rabbit fur is NOT a by-product of the meat industry. Millions of rabbits are bred specifically for their fur each year and they are killed by either having their necks broken or their throats slit.

For wild animals, leg-hold traps are used. The traps work by clamping the animals' leg, biting deep into the flesh. The victims wait a long time, growing weaker through pain and attempts to escape, before the trapper returns to kill them by clubbing or suffocation.

Despite fur retailers claiming they are "eco-friendly", the majority of fur comes from China, where environmental regulations are often ignored. Each mink produces about 45 pounds of faeces in their lifetime. In Ireland, where there's still 3 mink farms - that kill about 250,000 - 300,000 mink annually, that's 13,500,000 pounds of faeces each year in Ireland alone.

Since fur is made up of animal skin, a lot of chemicals go into preserving the skin for the buyer to wear, which pollutes the environment. Normal flesh would rot once dead. Various salts—along with ammonia, formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and other chromates and bleaching agents—are used to preserve and dye fur. 

Dundrum Shopping Centre HAS to stop supporting this cruelty. Please sign this petition to get a fur-free policy in the Dundrum Shopping Centre.