Just when you thought that footwear involving the mutilation of millions of sheep couldn't get any ugglier, several makers of knock-off UGG-style boots have been found to use fur from animals who were beaten and skinned alive. Tests conducted on products labeled as "Australian sheepskin" found that they were actually made of raccoon dog fur, most likely from animals confined to barbaric Chinese fur farms. 

Raccoon dogs are confined to row upon row of tiny wire cages that are exposed to the elements. Many of the animals go insane from the intensive confinement. Undercover video footage shows raccoon dogs as they are dragged from cages and slammed repeatedly to the ground before being skinned while still conscious. Some survive for as long as 10 minutes, blinking in pain on a pile of other bodies.

The tests also found that some boots contained domestic dog fur, which made it into Australia despite the country's ban on dog and cat fur.

Since you never can be sure whose fur ends up on your boots, coat, or gloves, the best thing to do is avoid all fur. 

Written by Heather Faraid Drennan

You've seen Hollywood's fugliest. Now, take a look at the Uggliest from Down Under: The proposed national costume for Miss Universe contestant Jesinta Campbell, aka Miss Australia, is making people wince.

PETA Australia has asked Campbell to abandon her plans to wear a ghastly get-up that includes a sheepskin shrug and last year's Ugg boots during the upcoming Miss Universe Pageant in Las Vegas. Unless she's lived in a cave, she has to know that most lambs in Australia are subjected to "mulesing"—a mutilation in which huge chunks of flesh are cut from lambs' backsides. And to help her out in case she sticks to her decision to wear this itchy, woolly outfit, PETA Australia is sending her what it believes is the perfect accessory for her costume: a pair of mulesing shears.

Personally, I'm optimistic that Campbell will come around to compassion. When I was her age, my most prized possession was a black leather motorcycle jacket—until I learned about how cows suffer in meat and milk factories. Just as I abandoned my leather vice to become pleather nice, Campbell can go from abominable to fauxnomenal.

Written by Karin Bennett

Remember what Pam Anderson said a few months ago about the whole Uggs craze?

Well, Pam dug the original Uggs out of her closet and offered them to us to help draw attention to the cruelty involved in the Australian wool industry (Uggs are made of Australian sheep skins), and this is where you come in. We want to hear your best ideas on how to use them to bring attention to this important issue. Feel free to post your ideas as comments or send them to me directly. We’ll announce the best idea on the blog in couple of weeks.

Here are a couple of my own ideas to get you started, though admittedly these aren’t the most exciting.

1. Offer them to the Hard Rock Café to be displayed along with Pam’s quote.
2. Use them in some kind of demo with the slogan being “Give Cruelty the Boot”
3. Use them in an ad saying “Uggs . . . Australian for Cruelty”

A lovely pic of Pam from her new-look website

I'm going to come clean with you guys and admit that I didn't know what Uggs were until I heard about this. I try to be trendy and keep my ear to the ground about this sort of thing, but apparently the whole Ugg thing has completely eluded me for, like, 10 years. Anyway, I'm told by my colleagues that they were this huge fashion phenomenon that got off the ground in a big way when Pamela Anderson started wearing them in her Baywatch days. Well, Pamela isn't wearing them anymore, and the story has gone everywhere—starting with People magazine. Here's what she had to say on the topic.

No wonder they call them Uggs

I know I've said this before, but I love you very much, Pamela. On a related note, you should check out the new design for Pam's website. It's very, very animal friendly. Did I mention that I love her?