Magali Amadei, the top model whose face has appeared on the covers of Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Elle, took a hidden camera on a trip to Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. Posing as a customer interested in purchasing fur, she then caught fur hawkers on tape, telling tall tales about how animals are killed for their fur.

The video, unveiled by Magali and designer Todd Oldham at a PETA news conference, shows salespeople denying the truth: that animals have their necks broken or are drowned, electrocuted or trapped.

The video, as well as footage from our undercover investigations showing animals being anally electrocuted and suffering from untreated injuries like exposed broken bones, went to the CEO’s of each of the stores.

“If these people were peddling cars and lied so blatantly about how they were made, they would be put out of business,” said Oldham, who refuses to use fur in any of his designs.

Such deception seems common in the fur industry. Activists in Beverly Hills caught fur industry reps on hidden cameras telling consumers that furs are made from animals “put to sleep like family pets.”

Myth: “Animals are ‘put to sleep’ painlessly by injection.”
That’s odd. Fur Commission (USA) says, “Chinchillas are electrocuted through a clip attached to the genital area,” “Neck-breaking when it’s done correctly works fine” and regarding trapped animals, “Sometimes a club to the brain renders the animal senseless,” or they can be shot. In Maryland, PETA discovered that animals were indeed injected with Black Leaf 40, a nicotine-based insecticide that caused them to convulse for up to 10 minutes before they died.

Sodium pentobarbital, the drug used to “put to sleep family pets,” is a “controlled dangerous substance.” To administer it, you need a government license, and it is also expensive. We know of no fur farmer licensed to use this drug.

Myth: “Fur is an environmentally friendly fabric.”
First of all, fur isn’t a “fabric”—it’s the skin of dead animals. Fur production, especially on ranches, creates enormous waste, from caged animals’ excrement to the tanning process. Toxic chemicals are used to embalm the fur and keep it from decomposing. In fact, the U.S. government has fined six fur-processing companies $2.2 million for violating hazardous waste regulations. Fur also represents astronomical energy consumption. According to one study, it takes 312,700 more British thermal units (BTU’s) to manufacture a coat made from trapped animals than to make a fake fur, and a staggering 7,845,500 more BTU’s to produce a coat made from ranch-raised animals!

Myth: “Animals caught in leghold traps don’t suffer.”
Tell that to Massachusetts animal control officer Joy Bannister, who found a lost dog with “padded” traps clamped onto three of her legs. Says Bannister, “The dog was chewing off her paw to try to break free. She was crying from the pain.” The damage to her legs was so extensive that the dog had to be euthanized.

Myth: “Trappers check traps often.”
Alaska, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota and Washington state have no regulations requiring trappers to check their traps at all. Twenty states allow animals to suffer for up to four days. Only Georgia has laws designating how a trapped animal must be killed, requiring that trappers kill them with a .22-caliber rifle.

According to the New Mexico Trappers Association’s Wesley E. Burris: “There is no way a trapper can maintain a trapline in a 24-hour time frame and get his/her job done and stay legal. He has two choices, trap illegally, or not trap at all.”

Myth: “Trapping animals controls populations and disease.”
Actually, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blames hunters and trappers for the current rabies epidemic in the U.S. In the 1970s, hunters transported raccoons from Florida to West Virginia to increase hunting and trapping opportunities; some of the animals turned out to be rabid.

Myth: “Animals on fur farms are better off than in the wild.”
Animals on fur farms are confined to filthy wire-mesh cages, fed a slop comprised of raw slaughterhouse waste and bug-killers, and then are killed in some ghastly manner—including being gassed, strangled or electrocuted.

When a group of activists led by PETA associate Walter Caporale, based in Milan, Italy, brought the media along on a visit to a decrepit mink farm, the farmer was so outraged at the thought of having the conditions at his farm revealed to the public that he attacked the group, beating them with a board, breaking one activist’s arm and injuring nine others. A journalist managed to capture the entire incident on videotape and the footage was aired on national TV, spurring public outcry and prompting government officials to propose a bill outlawing fur farms. “We are thrilled at the Agriculture Commission’s decision to take action against cruel fur farms,” said Caporale. “This bill will prevent the killing of 300,000 animals every year.” As a result of the raid, the farmer was charged with assault, as well as animal cruelty and illegal waste disposal. The local town council subsequently ordered that the farm be demolished.