Think about your beloved companion dog. He or she pulls at your heart strings, right? They are really smart, but what you especially treasure is their loving and loyal nature. They greet you like you’ve been gone a year when you’ve only been gone five minutes! Their joy is infectious, whether you’re proposing a meal, a ride in the car, or a walk. They help to relieve your stress by just being at your side, and they love you unconditionally. They never make you feel guilty, and if anything, blame themselves before blaming you. Uncannily they know when you’re feeling depressed or sad, and will come and put a paw on your lap or look up at you as if to say ‘Don’t worry, you’ve got me!’.
Now think of your beloved companion cat. You know he or she is intelligent, and that cats have personalities as varied as yours or mine. They are affectionate, and surprisingly loyal. Amusing companions, they like to perch in high places, and crouch in dark places like cardboard boxes and cupboards, and they get up to other antics they you have probably videoed and put up on Youtube – right? Comfort loving in the extreme, they will keep your seat warm for you on your favourite chair, which is also the most comfortable in the house, and register their disapproval when asked to vacate it. When your cat wants something, he or she asks you for it, both loudly and insistently. They are completely adorable, but if they are not happy with you, they will let you know. A glare, a swish of the tail, a furious and defiant claw scrape of your furniture and you know you’re not in your cat’s good books! Don’t worry, cats, like dogs, are very forgiving…
Imagine, then, if your beloved family member were living in a country where ruthless men and women abduct and hunt them for the trade that supplies fur all over the world.
Read PETA’s article about cats, dogs, minks, rabbits, foxes and other animals who are suffering appalling abuses in the lucrative Chinese fur industry.