Skinned alive and left to rot: 'I have no sympathy' (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES)

'There is no single animal in a farm that has not gone insane or depressed.'

Soft, cuddly, adorable little animals are slaughtered by the thousands in the name of commerce. One Russian fur farmer even admitted she felt satisfaction as she skinned some animals alive or injected them with lethal, but inhumane, drugs that slowly suffocate the animals while they remain aware and conscious the entire time.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "Mink given to a woman costs a lot. It costs thousands of roubles, thousands of screams, a ton of suffering and despair, kilometres of fur cleaned by human hands," The Daily Mail reported.

The VITA Animal Rights Centre of Russia explained how the animals "jump from side to side for hours in their cages showing their despair. There is no single animal in a farm that has not gone insane or depressed. How much time could you live in a crate? Thirty per cent of animals die before they grow their winter coat that the fur industry is counting on."

One activist, Emiliya Nadin, explained, "Foxes, mink, and raccoons live in small crates with metal nets instead of flooring which cuts their paws. The air they breathe is poisoned with their faeces.

"At the end of this hell animals will go through excruciating death. In most cases the murder is rushed in order to keep the fur and remove it more easily. As a result, the still breathing animal is skinned alive."

VITA reported most of the animals killed at these farms are caught in the wild and stated: "If every woman wearing her fur coat could her the screams of suffering and pain of the animal gnawing off its paw stuck in a trap, if she...saw how some animals are left disabled, it might not have been necessary to ask you to desist from wearing furs."

Though the practices are cruel and hazardous, the sale of sable, mink and fox fur clothing is thriving - something the Russian government encourages as a means of spurring the economy amid its current crisis.

Sergey Donskoy, the Natural Resources Minister, recently described the sale of sables exceeding the production limits by 120 percent. Today, 27,000 sables, 15,800 of which are cubs, exist and are killed on Russian fur farms.

The sable coats are the most popular in the industry right now, with their pelts dubbed "soft gold."

Director Vladimir Shevelyov, who is preparing a sable farm, explained: "The prime cost of mink is the highest now but it's a lot cheaper as a fur. That's why we are getting rid of mink completely and keeping sables. We will be only a sable farm. There is always demand for 'soft gold.'"

Shevlyov has been seen with the drug that slowly suffocates animals. He is expected to continue his brutal practices at the sable farm.

Yekaterina Klitsova, a fur farm owner, stated: "I'll tell you honestly, I have no sympathy towards the animals when they are about to be killed. Perhaps it is my professional immunity. On the contrary, I feel a deep satisfaction. I understand that the long and hard working process is about to be over.

"I'm happy we managed to grow good fur - and that I'll sell it and make money. Ordinary people think it's easy: you just put an animal into [a] crate, give it food and wait until it grows. In fact, a fur farm is a hell lot of work. You need to find food, bring it, store it, cook it properly, feed the animals on time.

"Each stage affects quality of the fur. For example, in July when animals are very small, it was very hot. Eventually, in November quality of fur isn't that good. It all went well, we vaccinated them and then all of a sudden, the heat hit 28C. The animals were not ready for it and 30 to 40 can die in a day. Their hearts cannot deal with it."

While groups attempt to claim artificial fur is just as good as the real thing, Klitsova replied artificial flowers are grown, cut then sold. She just happens to be growing mink and foxes.

"Thanks to running such a business, less fur animals are killed in their natural habitat," she stated. "That's life. Artificial fur can never be [compared] to natural. A mink coat is a status item. A woman wearing a mink coat looks ten years younger and catches glances of other people. I'm proud to be helping her in that.

"Mink live around 10 years in the wild, in the farm breeding animals are kept for three years after which they are killed because with intensive feeding they develop problems with their liver. But most of our mink live only eight months. ... Foxes have the same life span.

"However, a male fox can be kept alive for seven or eight years to breed. Some of them become fathers 30 times a season."

Klitsova is unable to see the cruelty of her words and actions, while most of Russia agrees with her.

The high cost and status associated with the furs is more important to Russia than the agony of innocent animals and the cruelty of the barbaric practice. Unfortunately, fur farms are thriving with sales on the black market and show no signs of slowing.

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