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Schule > Englisch > Ausarbeitungen, Interpretationen und Zusammenfassungen > English handout "Fur-bearing animals"

Death for our clothes and accessories

The real cost of fur

It's getting winter and we all need jackets. We often have jackets with a collar of fur. But how can we differentiate weather it is real fur or artificial fur.
There are some ways to find that out:

Real fur
Brand names (e.g. Abercrombie&Fitch)
Feels soft, passes trough the fingers
Burns, smells like burned hair
A pin goes trough easily
On the back side is leather

Artificial fur
Brand names (e.g. H&M, Esprit, S.Oliver, ...)
Feels coarse and synthetic
Burns not really, smells like plastic
Pin is hard to push trough
No leather

This symbol on a shop means: No real fur is used!
http://www.vier-pfoten.de/files/Germany/Wildtiere/Pelz/_resampled/SetRatioSize175300- Logo_FFR_neuneu.jpg

Real fur is not better than artificial fur. When you buy an accessory with real fur, means that: Toxic chemicals on our skin and lots of animal abuse. The most farms are in China and Scandinavia and the fur is exported to Germany and the USA.

Every year die 50 millions of animals like rabbits, cats, dogs, raccoon dogs, foxes and minks. The animals live in too small and dangerous cages. The animals are usually ill, injured and often still alive while people flay their fur.

There are some organisations that campaign for basic rights of the animals. For example Four Paws which was founded in 1988 and demand a species-appropriate keeping for all animals. Four Paws campaigns also for bears (they should not be tourist spots), for puppies (no criminal trade), for strays (they should not been killed) and for chickens and rabbits (no cage system housing). Another organisation is Peta which was founded by Ingrid Newkirk in 1980. Peta's current projects are campaigns against fur and leather, against wild animals in circuses and against transports for animal testing.

But you can also help in an easy way to stop the suffering of the fur bearing animals:
Application for smart phones - Inform friends and family
Don't buy real leather and fur - Make an information stand
Support the organisations - Join the actions of Peta and Four Paws

Interesting links:
http://www.peta.org/tv/default.aspx
http://www.zdf.de/37-Grad/Gift-auf-unserer-Haut-29878404.html

Vocabulary list

I Generals
(to) suffer - leiden
fur - Fell
artificial - künstlich
(to) differentiate - unterscheiden
animal abuse - Tierleid

II Can't avoid it
keychain - Schlüsselanhänger
(to) denote - kennzeichnen
(to) be misled - in die Irre geführt werden
coarse - rauh
pin - Nadel
advocate - Befürworter

III The suffering of the animals
(be) able to afford - sich etwas leisten können
species-appropriate - artgerecht
raccoon dog - Marderhund
mink - Nerz
marten - Marder
regulation - Vorschrift
(to) flay the fur - das Fell abziehen

IV An organisation
(to) demand - fordern
puppy - Welpe
stray - Streuner
cage system housing - Käfighaltung
subordinated - untergeordnet

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