Great news—California bill proposes ban on the sale of animal fur

Great news for all animals and animal lovers!! California assemblymember Laura Friendman, a representative of the Burbank and Glendale areas in Los Angeles County, proposed a bill that would ban the sale and gifting of clothing and accessories that contain real animal fur in the state of California.

AB 44 reads, “This bill would make it unlawful to sell, offer for sale, display for sale, trade, give, donate, or otherwise distribute a fur product, as defined, in the state.” It is sponsored by Animal Hope in Legislation, a political advocacy group that focuses on animal advocacy by lobbying for strong laws that prevent animal cruelty. They work at the local, state and federal level to instigate tangible change in the realm of animal rights.

Other organizations sponsoring the bill are The Animal Hope, the Wellness Foundation and The Humane Society. If the bill passes, California will be the first state in the United States to take this important step in preventing cruel and unnecessary exploitation of animals. The animals who are farmed for their fur are mostly wild animals that are kept in small wire cages, and then killed using methods that are not recognized as “humane slaughter laws,” if such a thing even exists.

The existing state law around fur farming states that the trade is legal for fur dealers and for those who have a license from the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

AB 44 follows in the footsteps of San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and West Hollywood, who already have such laws in place individually. Furthermore, the following European countries — the United Kingdom, Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Norway, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina — have full or partial fur bans in place already, while Lithuania, Poland, Ireland, and Estonia have also proposed legislation.

Those who are caught violating the California State Fur Ban will have to pay a fine of $500 upon first offense.

Seeing as we have many alternatives to fur and young people, who make up a large percentage of the state of California, are mostly progressive, this bill will predictably pass. Also, large and important cities in California have already set the precedent.

What do you think? With the implementation of such a fur ban measure in the largest state, will it perhaps become outlawed in the entire country in the foreseeable future?

Read the entire bill at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB44 and learn more at https://www.furfreealliance.com/fur-bans/.