Animal advocates test fur samples

Tests will be done on at least six samples - from soft toys to cheap made-in-China winter coats - after the start of a campaign this week to ban the import of cat and dog fur, says animal welfare group SAFE.

It will conduct DNA tests, costing about $100 each, in a bid to prove New Zealanders could be unknowingly buying products made of cat and dog fur, says spokesman Hans Kriek.

"Everyone loves a bargain, but what people don't know is that some of the cheap imported products we get from Asia are actually cat and dog fur in disguise," Mr Kriek said.

"With New Zealand being one of the last countries in the Western World where its import is not banned, it is just common sense that we could be used as a dumping ground by these unscrupulous exporters."

The European Union, United States and Australia have moved to prohibit imports of cat and dog fur.

Mr Kriek said the trade was active in Asia and more than two million cats and dogs, raised in appalling conditions, had been slaughtered for their pelts.

Cat and dog fur products were deliberately disguised and sold using false or incorrect labelling, he said.

"The cost is obviously a factor for a grassroots group like ours to be running these tests, but we are hoping that legislation will mean that customs officials will be doing future tests at the border."

Cat owner Stacey Thorpe, of Sunnynook, was astonished that cat and dog fur was sold in New Zealand and has written to Prime Minister John Key asking him to make the import ban a priority.

"It shouldn't be happening here and it is just absolutely shocking that it is."

Green MP Sue Kedgley has drafted a bill to amend the Customs Act by adding cat and dog fur to the schedule of prohibited imports. It will be put in the member's bill ballot box.