Longtime Fur Trade CEO Now Supports Fur Ban

Former fur industry executive Mike Moser will speak next week in support of the “No Business In Fur” virtual event organized by Humane Society International (HSI) United Kingdom as part of its #FurFreeBritain campaign to ban fur sales across the UK. Moser worked for the International Fur Federation from 2008 to 2015 and served as Chief Executive Officer of the British Fur Trade Association—from which he resigned in 2018 after defending fur farming for more than a decade. 

“I spent ten years working for the fur trade, and in that time I visited fur farms across the globe so I’ve seen the reality of fur farming. Over time I realized that whatever soundbites we devised to reassure consumers, retailers, and politicians, neither welfare regulations nor any industry certification scheme, would ever change the reality of these animals being stuck in tiny wire cages for their entire lives,” Moser said. “I would come home to Barney, my Labrador, who I loved dearly, and realize that he wasn’t that much different in size to some of the animals I saw languishing on fur farms, and the thought of him being treated like that was just unthinkable. I felt a complete hypocrite.” 

Moser explained that at times, his job was to debate HSI UK Executive Director Claire Bass with pro-fur farming talking points that he now can no longer stand behind. “The fur trade is anachronistic. It still fails to recognize that social attitudes towards animals have changed dramatically, that we understand much more clearly sentiency, and what constitutes good welfare,” Moser said. “The Zeitgeist today is that caging and killing animals for an unnecessary fashion product, that has only vanity value, is unacceptable. The UK banned fur farming two decades ago but for as long as we import and sell the fur from overseas, the UK is still supporting fur farming and trapping by proxy. That’s morally and politically ambiguous, and that’s why I support a UK fur sales ban.”

Moser is now a consultant with HSI UK and is working with the organization to put an end to fur farming. “British people and politicians take pride in being a nation of animal lovers, and so it doesn’t surprise me that it was Mike’s love for his dog Barney that was at the heart of his epiphany that caging and killing animals for their fur is wrong,” Bass said. “If the idea of locking a pet dog in a cage for life and then electrocuting and skinning that animal for fur is unthinkable, then it’s not a big leap to feel similar empathy for animals like foxes who endure this cruelty on fur farms. I fully respect Mike’s change of heart, and he now has an important and powerful message for the UK government—if someone like him with a decade’s experience inside the fur industry says it’s right to ban fur sales, then it’s time to take action and end the suffering.”