Peaceful viewers, on today’s Stop Animal Cruelty program we’ll explore the utterly inhumane, abusive treatment of our innocent animal friends on fur farms.

The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, also known as the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, describes in the Book of Genesis the creation of animals and their relationship with humans as follows: "The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’ Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky.”

The development of human civilization is inseparable from the selfless assistance of our animal co-inhabitants. Buffalos have plowed our fields, horses have provided us with transport, and many other beings of the land, ocean and sky color our world through their vibrant, majestic presence.

On some, the Creator has bestowed warm fur for protection against the weather and to bless them with a noble appearance. Sadly, however, humanity in its greed steals these protective coats to produce jackets, boots, hats, cushions, furniture, toys and other items.

In fact, fur unfortunately never completely disappeared from shops. There were ups and downs, but in the last three years, there is a resurgence and it has become more and more accessible; that is to say it became less expensive. And unfortunately, it means more animals will be massacred for a fashion that is fleeting and totally unimportant.

Statistics from the US-based animal welfare group Humane Society International paint a bleak picture of the current situation, as each year over eight-million animals are caught by fur trappers and at least 30 million are raised and heartlessly killed on industrial farms to supply producers of so-called fur fashions.

To make a single meter-long fur coat, 200 chinchillas, 100 squirrels, 60 minks, 40 sables, 30 raccoons, 20 foxes or eight seals had to suffer slow, horrendous deaths. Even dogs, cats and rabbits are not spared. To escape public outrage, furs from bred or stolen companion animals are often intentionally mislabeled as other types of pelts.

Seventy-three percent of fur farms are in Europe, 12 percent are in North America and the rest are dispersed throughout the world in countries such as Argentina, China and Russia. Minks and foxes are most likely to be factory farmed, with 26-million minks violently slaughtered annually along with approximately 4.5-million foxes.

On the murderous mink fur farms, the animals are kept in row after row of tiny wire cages, sometimes outdoors with no protection from the elements. The minks are intermittently fed an obscene diet of ground-up animals, including their own species, and given filthy water. These cramped, sordid conditions are a breeding ground for pathogens, but veterinary care is completely unheard of.

For wild animals used to roaming through acres of land, this confinement drives them to anxiety-induced psychosis, causing them to chew their own limbs and exhibit repetitive behaviors such as pacing. These animals spend day and night confined in their cages and sleep in their own excrement. In fact, the urine and feces build up to such high concentrations that the ammonia produced burns the eyes and throat, causing respiratory problems.

Common ways of killing fur-bearing animals include drowning, gassing, electrocution, poisoning, neck breaking and beating to death. A 2005 undercover investigation of fur farms in China by Care for the Wild International, Swiss Animal Protection and EAST International revealed the appalling abuses occurring in these facilities, where outsiders are banned from entering to hide the atrocities being committed.

Raccoon dogs are native to East Asia and can also be found in northern and eastern Europe. These beautiful beings normally live in forests near bodies of water but are also raised on factory farms to be brutally exploited for their fur. The way their lives are ended is totally unconscionable and inhumane.

they are grabbed by their hind legs, swung into the air and slammed face first onto a concrete floor. Or they may be repeatedly beaten over the head with a heavy stick or pole or have their throats and necks stomped on. The gentle animals writhe in unimaginable pain as their limbs are axed from their bodies. Some are too injured to move, but their eyes remain open, staring helplessly into space.

The raccoon dogs are hung up by their hind legs on hooks and a knife is used to mercilessly cut their lower bellies. Next their skin is literally ripped open down to the abdomen. The skinners then ruthlessly tear the hide over their heads and completely away from their now naked bodies, which are subsequently tossed onto a pile of carcasses. At this point some of the raccoon dogs are still alive. Their skinless bodies heave with shallow breaths and their hearts continue beating for a few more minutes until they pass on.

This bloodbath often occurs at a slaughter ground next to a large fur market while other animals in cages watch powerlessly, knowing it will soon be their turn to die. When we return, we’ll continue our program on the torture and murder of animals on fur farms. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

You’re watching the Stop Animal Cruelty series on Supreme Master Television. Today we’re examining the sickening practice of fur farming. Stella McCartney, daughter of Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney, is a vegan fashion designer and animal rights advocate who refuses to use fur in her clothing line. She was recently named best dressed woman of 2009 by the US fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar.

Hi, this is Stella McCartney for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The images you are about to see were shot on a fur farm in the United States, where conditions are supposed to be among the best in the world.

For four months in 2004, an undercover PETA investigator documented the suffering and deaths of more than 1,500 animals on a fur farm.

This caged fox, a bone in his leg fully exposed, was videotaped by PETA during a four-month undercover investigation. Know that no care was ever provided for this animal, or countless others suffering and dying on this fur ranch. This fox’s eye was sealed shut by a raging infection. The animals who somehow survive such illnesses are eventually electrocuted for their pelts. This fox cannot hold his head upright, due to an ear infection. This fox is almost too weak to stand.

Foxes on this farm went up to five weeks without being given water, except for the little which came from the moisture in their food. This fox died slowly after several days. She was provided with no veterinary care. Every day the farmer ignored scenes like this of a fox and his dead cage mate. These caged foxes have gone “cage mad,” weaving back and forth, over and over again. These wild animals and their offspring can never take even a few steps, experience liberty or feel the earth beneath their feet.

Another fox circles his cage, driven crazy from the stress of confinement. Excrement and fur collect on cage wires and beneath the cages, making living conditions revolting. The filth causes skin irritation, and the animals scratch constantly. This fox, eyes oozing with infection, paces endlessly, unable to escape. Another sign of frustration from confinement: the animals bob and weave.

When the end comes, it looks like this: A fox is removed from his cage with a metal neck pole. He is walked past the rows of bodies of slaughtered foxes. Death is by painful anal electrocution. In this case the probe falls out of the animal’s rectum after he has bitten down on the metal conductor, and the process must be repeated. The same thing happens with the next fox, showing how crude this process is.

These stacks of bodies represent immeasurable suffering. The skinned carcasses you see here will actually be ground up and fed to the animals still caged. As you can see, when you consider what the animals endure, there is nothing fashionable about fur.

The foxes on this fur farm are also fed chickens that have gone through inhumane, toxic experiments at pharmaceutical companies. After arriving at the farm, the chickens are suffocated to death by covering the boxes in which they arrive with tarps. Those that somehow survive cannot imagine what’s next. “The farmer forced the live chickens feet first into the grinder. You could hear their screams over the roar of the engine,” said the PETA investigator.

Chinchillas are small animals that live in South America’s Andes mountains. At this chinchilla farm, undercover PETA investigators recorded the process of violently slaughtering the animals. Two main methods are used: electrocution and neck breaking. During electrocution, an animal is first removed from her cage. Then an alligator clamp is attached to her ear and another to her sensitive lower body.

As the killer flips the switch, she jerks as her mouth and her whiskers quiver constantly until she eventually becomes stiff. A yellow fluid comes out of her body as her bladder is damaged. The electrical current causes a full-blown heart attack.

However, this does not kill the chinchilla immediately. Instead, it paralyzes her body, preventing her from moving her muscles while her brain remains conscious. During the last few minutes of her life, she experiences torturous pain without being able to squeal in terror.

Among fur factory operators, neck breaking or snapping is considered to be the least expensive way to end a powerless animal’s life. This is a PETA investigator’s first-hand account of the horrifying procedure they observed: “Grasping the chinchilla’s head and jaw, he arched the neck awkwardly backwards. The chinchilla squealed. The farmer then pulled sharply on the animal’s tail, breaking his neck. He tossed the jerking chinchilla to the floor, where the animal writhed in continuous spasms.”

The chinchilla is next clamped with its body spread out onto a pelting board. First she is cut open in the middle of the belly. Then her face and hands are cut off. Finally, her furry skin is peeled off, first from her hands, then her skull, feet and tail. Her skinned body is finally dumped into a trash bucket full of dismembered corpses.

As more and more people stand up against animal cruelty, governments around the world are taking action against fur farming and trading. The European Union and United States prohibit the importation of dog and cat pelts, while the United Kingdom, Croatia and Austria have completely outlawed fur farming.

What can we do as individuals to change the current situation? We can buy synthetic fur. It is equally soft and far more beautiful as well as economical and eco-friendly compared to real fur. Faux fur requires 60 times less energy and resources than real fur to produce.

Aside from contacting your local government officials to inform them that fur farming and the fur trade must end immediately, it also helps to write to fashion designers and clothing stores to ask them to stop using real fur.

The Bible’s Book of Revelation says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." With the elevation of human consciousness, may the day soon arrive where humans live peacefully with all beings.

For more details on ending fur farming please visit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals www.Peta.org or www.FurIsDead.org

Wise viewers, thank you for your presence on today’s episode of the Stop Animal Cruelty series. Next is Enlightening Entertainment after Noteworthy News. May compassion and empathy expand and touch every soul on Earth.

The images in the following program are very sensitive and may be as disturbing to viewers as they were to us. However, we have to show the truth about cruelty to animals.