Letters: Label those skins

I WAS appalled to read in your article on the skin trade ("Hide and Seek", Real Life, 12 September) that Britain allows imported cat and dog fur to be sold in this country. If the UK is so certain that this kind of fur is in demand, perhaps it should insist that cat and dog fur is labelled as such.

I wonder how many dogskin coats would be sold in Britain if they were correctly labelled? Or how many German cars sold with upholstery made from catskin? If retailers and designers don't know which animal their clothes and accessories are coming from they should not be accepting these materials. Perhaps if they were forced to DNA test all items they would stop accepting dubiously produced skins like frog, pony and snake, all of which seem to involve the animal being tortured to death. Even the process of getting wool from sheep is not the innocent procedure we all supposed.

It is appalling that consumers are being lied to concerning the origins of goods they are buying in Britain. If the Government is not prepared to ban goods that are being produced in this way, then they should be telling us how we are obtaining these goods. I think there would be a drop in sales.

MADELEINE WURZBURGER

Richmond, Surrey