Democracy for Vancouver

Macy’s faux fur coats from ‘raccoon dog’

NEW YORK (AP) — Macy’s has pulled from its shelves and its Web site two styles of Sean John hooded jackets, originally advertised as featuring faux fur, after an investigation by the nation’s largest animal protection organization concluded that the garments were actually made from a certain species of dog called “raccoon dog.”
“First these jackets were falsely advertised as faux fur, and then it turned out that the fur came from a type of dog,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.
Pacelle added that the issue is an “industrywide problem” and its investigation demonstrated that retailers and designers “aren’t paying close enough attention to the fur trim they are selling.”
Orlando Veras, a spokes-man at Macy’s, a division of Federated Department Stores Inc., confirmed Friday that the retailer had removed the jackets, releasing a statement saying that it has a “long-standing policy against the selling of any dog or cat fur.”