Fury at taobao over animal skin products
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Products made from the skins of cats and dogs were still on sale Thursday on taobao. com, one of China's major e-commerce platforms, despite extensive media coverage, fury among animal lovers and a ban imposed by the website itself in May.
Thousands of goods made of cat and dog skin were found on taobao.com Thursday, including boots and cushions.
"Taobao has been working on deleting items related to cat and dog products," Yan Qiao, a spokesman from the company, told the Global Times.
Taobao's transaction records show that such products sold once or twice at most within the last 30 days.
However, retailers and producers said that business is booming.
"Our sales are good," said a producer of animal skin goods surnamed Guo from Zaoqiang county, Hebei Province, Thursday.
Guo told a Global Times reporter posing as a potential customer that she bought cat and dog skin from a group that caught animals.
"A cat skin double bed mat was made of 50 or 60 cats, and sells at about 1,000 yuan ($150) each," said Guo.
"Awareness of protecting small animals in China is growing, but no laws have been established, so we can only criticize those who abuse animals from a moral perspective," Wang Fan, a public relations supervisor from the Animals Asia Foundation, told the Global Times Thursday.
