Fur is cool again.
After slipping in the 1980s and 90s, in part due to fashion trends, but also because of protests by animal rights groups, demand for fur has roared back.
Sales were up 70 percent in the last decade, with worldwide sales last year topping $14 billion.
International Fur Trade Federation (IFTF) CEO, Mark Oaten, says one reason is increasing disposable incomes in places like Russia and China.
"I think what's amazing about the fur industry at the moment is that during an almost global recession where economic times are so difficult, you've got an industry that is actually seeing sales at an all-time high, a success story, and there's not many of those around at the moment. From all of the countries that I travel, I see designers using fur more, I see more fur farms taking place and I see events like this having record numbers."
Oaten says efforts to promote animal welfare in the industry have helped make fur more acceptable to consumers.
But the growing demand for fur has led to extensive farming operations in developing countries such as China, and animal rights campaigner Rebecca Chui says this video shows cruel practices persist.
"The video was taken last year in December in Northern China, just a typical fur farm in China. We're actually trying to show the video to the public and especially to the potential fur buyers, to just tell them (about) the cruelty behind the fur industry."
Reuters cannot verify the authenticity of this video.
The fur industry insists it's working to raise China's fur trade standards to the European level, where welfare regulations and standards governing fur production are in force.
Such furs carry the Origin Assured (OA) label.
Buyer Gill Lingwood Bessis also points out that China's fur farms account for only a small portion of global fur trade supply.
"What I don't think people realise in Europe is that probably 90 percent of all furs they see on the high street or anywhere else are, the biggest producers of fur are either in Helsinki or Denmark or Eastern Europe. They are Origin Assured. They are under EU guidelines. It does not come from China."
The IFTF launched the OA label five years ago.
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