Missguided forced to pull ‘faux fur’ products actually made from cat and rabbit fur

A Sky News investigation found high street companies like Missguided have been mislabeling real-animal fur products as synthetic.

Fibres expert, Phil Greaves, identified items from Missguided and House of Fraser being most consistent with rabbit, raccoon dog, mink and cat being labelled as faux fur. All items Sky News found were labelled as “made in China” and priced at £30 or less.

Despite fur farms being banned in the UK in 2003, Asian farmed fur is making it’s way into retailers supply chains. Even worse, it’s being mislabelled as ‘faux fur’.

According to Phil Greaves, this mislabelling of real animal fur is “becoming increasingly common, particularly over the past five years.”

When shopper Donna Allison bought a pair of pink pom-pom Missguided heels,  she immediately suspected they were real fur. She contacted Missguided on Twitter, who “dismissed it as being faux”, stressing their anti-fur policy.

After investigation, Phil Greaves found the pom-poms were most consistent with cat fur. Donna Allison told Sky News: “My life is basically animals and cats, so it’s really hurtful, really shocking.

“Whether they know they are selling it or not there needs to be something done about it. They need to be more responsible for what they are selling.”

A second pair of Missguided pointed pumps were identified as having pom-poms most consistent with rabbit fur.

Claire Bass, executive director of Humane Society International told Sky News: “We are finding an increasing amount of real fur being sold either mislabelled or not labelled at all as real fur, in the last couple of years in the UK.”

“This is a problem in two ways. Firstly it’s a problem for the animals who are suffering awful, deprived lives and excruciating deaths on fur farms and traps around the world to produce these products.

“And secondly, it’s a problem for consumers, who are not being protected from unfair trading, who want to shop ethically and avoid the fur trade.  Life is really, really cheap in the fur farming industry. These animals are kept in appalling conditions; they’re denied veterinary care, they are fed terrible food.”

After being informed of the investigation, Missguided stressed it had a strict no fur policy and removed the shoes from sale.

A spokesperson said: “We will be launching an internal investigation with the relevant suppliers and will ensure these matters are addressed urgently.”

House of Fraser said: “We take this issue very seriously and have communicated this to the brand in question. As a result all products have been removed from sale.”