The Fur Industry – Some History

A grim ‘pro-fur’ item in our Ernest Bell Library.

A circa 1870/1880 advertising card.

Corde Viridis – thank you so much for the translation –

Paul Körner
Fur trader
Specialty: various skin carpets with or without naturalised heads.

Humans are selling the skins of animals, and we are pretty certain that the animals didn’t all die of old age.

Lion, Tiger, Panther, Jaguar…….

Current Prices – for skins with naturalised heads

PETA’s site – http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/fur/

Whether it came from an animal on a fur farm or one who was trapped in the wild, every fur coat, trinket, and bit of trim caused an animal tremendous suffering—and took away a life.

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Two much more pleasant ‘anti-fur’ Ernest Bell Library items – a pin & a book.

Both were created by dedicated animal rights activists circa 1938.

‘Wear No Fur’ – The Animal Defence Society – a circa 1938 pin.

No maker – believed to be the work of Thomas Fattorini Limited – Birmingham – UK.

The book ‘The Great Fox-Trot. A Satire’ – by Louise Lind-af-Hageby – also undated.

One of the pen drawings and sketches by Madge Graham – depicting humans who desire to wear garments made from animals’ skins.

The old pin seems to have been inspired by the artwork of Madge Graham.

“Cruelty to animals will go the way of all forms of cruelty, when a real civilised existence becomes a possibility to everyone” – Socialist Standard, February 1926, in an article on the Animal Defence Society.

The Animal Defence Society is an abbreviation of The Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society established in 1906 (or maybe 1903?) by Louise Lind af Hageby and Nina Duchess of Hamilton. This was a small campaigning organisation with a particular focus in its early years on exposing the nature of vivisection. Hageby and her friend Liesa Schartau bore witness to animal experiments at University College, London particularly upon an old brown dog, as they described in their book Shambles of Science.

The campaigning work continued until the 1960s with the death of Hageby. The organisation was opposed to cruelty towards animals in many forms including hunting, experimentation and as performers in film and stage. The Society was active in the Second World War offering sanctuary at the home of the Duchess of Hamilton at Ferne in Dorset to animals evacuated from London by their keepers anxious for their welfare. The sanctuary has continued – https://www.facebook.com/FerneAnimalSanctuary

Emilie Augusta Louise “Lizzy” Lind af-Hageby (20 September 1878 – 26 December 1963) was a Swedish-British feminist and animal rights advocate who became one of England’s most prominent anti-vivisection activists. She co-founded the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society (ADAVS), founded The Anti-Vivisection Review, and ran an animal sanctuary at Ferne House in Dorset with the Duchess of Hamilton. She became best known as the co-author of The Shambles of Science: Extracts from the Diary of Two Students of Physiology (1903), a diary of vivisection demonstrations she attended in London. Wiki –http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzy_Lind_af_Hageby

Nina Duchess of Hamilton was a co-founder of the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society, with Lizzy Lind af-Hageby, and in 1912 became a founder of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Vivisection, which went on to become Advocates for Animals. She also ran an animal sanctuary at Ferne House in Dorset, the estate she and her husband owned. Wiki – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Douglas-Hamilton,_Duchess_of_Hamilton

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Our Projects

The Henry Salt Archive is one of our, almost completed, projects.

The Humanitarian League is our Hong Kong registered charity.

The Ernest Bell Library was conceived in 1934. It is still strong & very active eighty years later.

 “I have little doubt that the proposal for the establishment of an Ernest Bell Library, which would specialize in humanitarian and progressive literature, and so form a sort of centre for students, will meet with a wide response.” 

Henry S. Salt – writing in September 1934

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For more information, please send an email to: –

humanitarianleague (at) outlook (dot) com

– or message me  through HappyCow –

https://www.happycow.net/blog/author/JohnnySensible/
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