Cats Protection’s Acting Head of Advocacy & Government Relations Madison Rogers said: “We are pleased that these new regulations will ensure that the UK will continue to ban the import of cat fur now the UK has left the European Union. However, these regulations will only be effective on goods explicitly sold as cat fur, and do not address the problem of cat fur being imported and sold as ‘faux fur’ in poorly-labelled goods. Cats Protection has seen evidence of cases where ‘fake fur’ used in products and garments such as shoes was in fact cat fur.

“The fur trade is an abhorrent and cruel industry which causes great suffering to animals around the world, including cats. The UK was one of the first countries to ban fur farming in 2000 and should continue to set the highest standards around the world. Cats Protection believes these new regulations should go further to ensure that UK consumers do not unwittingly support the fur trade by purchasing goods which are not properly labelled.

“We would like to see a requirement that any textile that contains parts of animal origin be visibly labelled. Furthermore, it should be a requirement for animal fur to be specifically listed, irrespective of the cost of the product and the amount of fur contained in it. Information on the label should include the species from which the fur has been obtained, if the fur came from a wild animal or a fur factory, which country the fur was produced, manufactured and treated in and if there was any dye added to the fur. More detailed labelling requirements are already a legal requirement in the United States of America under the Fur Products Labeling Act.”