The faux fur that’s not really

David Goldstein of CBS news and Pierre Grzybowski, a fur expert with the Humane Society of the United States, purchased items at Los Angeles area stores after they were assured the items were indeed faux fur, and not the real thing.

You know what’s going to happen now, right?

At Arden B, a vest for $68 was labeled as “suede faux fur.”  A salesperson had confirmed that Arden B does not carry fur containing items.  After inspection, Mr. Grzybowski said, “it’s consistent with rabbit or fox that has been dyed. You might think that kind of fur is worth a lot of money. But not these small pieces.”

A $350 jacket at Grasshoppers children’s clothing had faux fur trim according to the salesperson because there was no mention of “fur” on the label.  Mr. Grzybowski confirmed it was raccoon dog, raised by the millions in China for slaughter as a fur commodity.

The team also found a Rocawear coat at Burlington Coat Factory that did not mention the raccoon dog fur on its label.  A jacket at Bloomingdale’s consisting of either rabbit or fox fur was not labeled as well.

A loophole in federal labeling laws allows the manufacturers to omit the fur labeling.  “The loophole is that if the fur is valued at less than $150, there doesn’t have to be any mention on the label that there is animal fur on the jacket,” Grzybowski said.

This is despicable.  This is yet another example of our lawmakers creating pointless legislation to dupe consumers and show deference to manufacturing lobbyists for the sake of campaign dollars.

Mr. Grzybowski gives us a tip on how to spot the real from the fake.  “You want to push the hairs apart and try to get down to the base of the fabric.  If you see skin, that is real fur.  On fake fur, if you look closely you see fabric – not skin – at the base of the fur.”

According to Goldstein, the labels and the salespeople can’t be trusted.  Sadly, he’s right.

via cbs2.com