China's fur animal farming industry should be viewed objectively and fairly

China is a major producer and consumer of fur, and fur animal farming is an important part of the fur industry, attracting close attention from the industry at home and abroad. Su Chaoying, Chairman of the China Leather Industry Association, in order to make clear China's attitude toward developing the fur animal farming industry and to clarify the misunderstandings of certain organizations and individuals at home and abroad regarding China's fur animal farming industry, issued a statement on the current state of fur animal welfare in China, hoping that everyone will view the developing fur animal farming industry of China with an objective, comprehensive and fair attitude.

As in all other countries around the world, China's record of using animal fur to make clothing and accessories has accompanied the history of early human evolution and social development throughout. In the initial stage, pelts were mainly obtained through hunting in the wild. After the founding of New China, in order to balance the two needs of protecting fur animal resources and making rational use of them, China began to vigorously guide and promote the artificial breeding of fur animals. Starting in 1956, China established its first batch of fur animal breeding farms in Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Shandong and other provinces, and through state-run foreign trade enterprises introduced breeding stock of fur animals such as mink and fox from abroad for artificial breeding on these farms. From then on, China's fur animal breeding industry entered a period of development from nothing to something, and from small to large. Entering the 1980s, both China's fur animal inventory and annual fur output reached a considerable scale, and the private economy gradually became the main force in the farming industry. At present, almost all of the animal fur and fur clothing and accessory products produced in China come from artificially bred resources.

China's fur animal farming industry has developed vigorously in recent years. At present, the output of China's fur animal farming industry accounts for about half of the world's total output. According to statistics from the China Leather Industry Association, in 2013 the output of China's main fur animal species, namely mink, fox and raccoon dog, was more than 40 million, more than 10 million and more than 12 million respectively. Fur animal farming is mainly distributed across 13 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, including Shandong, Liaoning, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Tianjin and Beijing, with the main farming areas concentrated in Shandong, Liaoning, Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin, accounting for about 95% of the national total farming volume. As the first factory of the fur industry, the fur animal farming industry provides abundant raw materials for the fur industry; the fur animal farming industry has provided employment for more than 5 million rural laborers, effectively helping farmers escape poverty and become prosperous; the fur animal farming industry has also effectively eased the pressure on protecting wild resources, producing positive ecological benefits.

In order to regulate the development of China's fur animal farming industry, the competent departments of the central government have issued a series of documents and regulations. In 2005, the State Forestry Administration issued the Interim Technical Regulations on the Domestication, Breeding and Utilization of Wild Fur Animals (hereinafter referred to as the Technical Regulations); in 2007, it issued the White Paper on the Breeding, Utilization and Management of Fur Animals in China; and starting in 2013, it again entrusted the China Leather Industry Association with revising the Technical Regulations, and the revised standard will be issued within 2015. These documents and regulations all place emphasis on detailed requirements for the rearing environment, animal welfare and slaughter methods of fur animals, and are consistent with internationally accepted standards. These regulations and standards are communicated down through forestry departments at all levels and industry associations, and supervision is carried out by the forestry departments.

In China, the government and industry associations have consistently required and actively advocated the use of civilized rearing and strict standardization to promote the development of the fur animal farming industry, firmly oppose, condemn and resist acts of animal cruelty, and at the same time support artificial rearing activities that legally utilize animal resources. China is still in the primary stage of socialism and is also a developing country. Many domestic industries, including the fur animal farming industry, are in the process of continuous improvement, refinement and enhancement. The uncivilized and non-standardized treatment of farmed animals in certain places and individual cases cannot represent the overall situation in China; civilized rearing, active guidance, public opinion supervision, implementation of standards and crackdowns in accordance with the law are the shared responsibilities of farming practitioners, industry associations, news media and government management departments in the future.