In 2005 a horrific video showed a raccoon dog clubbed, hung upside down, and then skinned. The skinned animal is then thrown on a pile to die. For many years the video made the rounds and the story was important in drawing attention to both the conditions where animal welfare concerns are poorly enforced and how false labelling was common the marketplace - eventually leading to the Truth in Fur Labeling Act in the United States, and for many clothing and fashion companies to abandon fur.
Rather than condemn the events however, the International Fur Federation, a public relations lobby group for the industry, has chosen to engage in their own investigation almost fifteen years later, and say that has found two people who will "testify" that an event almost 15 years ago was staged, as they were paid to skin the animal alive.
One may ask how legitimate thinks that looks.
Cui bono? If animal welfare activists succeed they shut down an unnecessary industry. The people in the industry however lose their jobs. So it pretty obvious that the IFF et al., will fight to their last dollar and by all means fair and foul to keep their skin trade afloat.
There is no argument that skinning animals alive is not the norm in the industry. But enforcement of animal welfare protocols in not exactly strongly enforced in rural China, and Chinese animal welfare organisations have noted that such practises are unfortunately not isolated.
And as we know from numerous cases in (for example) the slaughterhouse industry random cruelty to animals is common even when it is isn't systemic.
And we do know of systemic abuses in the industry as well – such as marketing racoon dog pelts as "faux fur".
The problem for the fur industry is that they are in business which simply isn't necessary anymore and normal people find is kind of gross given the widespread availability of alternatives. Technology - and ethics - is driving the industry out of existence.
Good riddance.