DC Council has a bill to ban fur sales that is coming up on a critical deadline. We need your help to move it forward.

The Fur Products Prohibition Act (B25-0122) is a bill currently under consideration by the DC Council that, if passed, will prohibit the sale of new fur products, including clothing, accessories, and home decor. The bill was first introduced in 2022 by Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent C. Gray. At the time, the bill was referred to DC Council's committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, but still has not moved forward. If the bill does not pass this year, it is unlikely to have another chance anytime soon. Help us urge Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, and the DC Council to move this bill forward as soon as possible.

Why is this bill important?

Although fur has widely declined in popularity, millions of animals are still raised and killed worldwide to be made into garments. DC no longer has furriers (stores that sell exclusively fur attire), and there are only a handful of stores remaining that sell products with animal fur. There are many benefits of passing this bill:

• Animal Welfare: An animal will spend its life in a tiny, unsanitary cage; a condition most people would find abhorrently cruel as the animals cannot practice natural behaviors. Most do not receive even basic veterinary care and are killed in inhumane ways, including gassing and electrocution, solely for needless items such as fur pom hats or fur trimmed gloves.

• Environmental Impact: The fur industry mostly uses carnivorous animals, like mink, meaning that fur has a higher carbon footprint than any other material used in fashion.

• Disease Transmission: A Harvard/NYU report recently described the practices that the fur industry uses such as dense animal confinement, close human contact, and feeding minks raw meat as "ideal conditions for viruses to evolve and adapt".

Now is the time for DC Council to ask: are these costs of the fur industry worth it? We say NO.

Please write to your Councilmember and ask them to move the Fur Products Prohibition Act forward immediately.