Victoria: LOVE ANIMALS, BAN FUR!

100 million animals die every year from the global fur trade, and 95 percent of the fur produced worldwide comes from intensive fur farms where animals endure routine, horrific cruelty – crammed into wire cages for their entire lives before being killed for a coat collar or a pom-pom.

Australia has banned cat and dog fur imports since 2004 – but the Australian Border Force has recorded zero seizures in twenty years. In that vacuum, mislabelled real fur keeps turning up on Victorian shelves.

This Isn't Hypothetical – It's Already Happening in Victoria

Our 2019 investigation exposed real domestic cat fur on an unlabelled glove for sale at Queen Victoria Market. It wasn't a one-off. In 2025, forensic testing commissioned by Collective Fashion Justice found two pom-pom beanies sold at Queen Victoria Market and labelled "acrylic" that actually tested positive for fox and raccoon dog fur. Around the same time, a children's vest sold by Suttons UGG and labelled "100 per cent Australian sheepskin or Australian wool" was found to contain domestic cat fur and rabbit fur – Suttons UGG later admitted the label was "wrong," but said it couldn't "100 per cent confirm" what the garment was made of.

"Every Victorian would be shocked to know that they could go to the store and accidentally buy something made from cat fur," said Collective Fashion Justice founder Emma Hakansson – and given how many Victorian households own a cat themselves, that's exactly the point. You can read our full breakdown of Victoria's fur labelling crisis here.

Behind the mislabelling is an industry that Four Paws and Collective Fashion Justice describe in stark terms: raccoon dogs farmed for fur are routinely electrocuted, bludgeoned to death, or skinned alive. Textiles marketed as "faux" have repeatedly tested positive for real raccoon dog, mink and fox fur – because there's currently nothing meaningfully stopping a retailer from mislabelling what they sell.

Why Self-Regulation Isn't Working

✗	No import enforcement. Cat and dog fur has been banned from import since 2004, yet the Australian Border Force has recorded zero seizures in twenty years.
✗	Big penalties, little effect. Victorian consumer law allows fines of up to $50 million for businesses over false product claims – but mislabelled fur keeps turning up regardless.
✗	"Faux" often isn't. Items labelled acrylic or synthetic have repeatedly tested positive for real fox, raccoon dog, rabbit and cat fur.
✗	Victoria is lagging, not leading. Austria, Croatia, the UK and the Netherlands have banned fur farming outright, and Israel has banned fur sales entirely – Victoria still allows both.

As Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell put it after co-chairing a 2025–26 taskforce into fur sales in Victoria: "We don't need another taskforce. We know that this is a problem." The zoonotic risk associated with fur farming has already helped shut down parts of the industry across Europe and the US, and fur bans are emerging in countries all over the world. It's time Victoria became Australia's first.

Sign the Petition to Ban Fur Sales in Victoria

Add your name to call for a statewide ban on the sale of fur in Victoria – and tell the Minister for Consumer Affairs that Victorians have waited long enough for real action.