Consumer Info: Investigation—What is that they're wearing?

7. The Skin Trade... Philippine Cat Slaughter

The Skin Trade
Investigators also went undercover to look into reports of horrific conditions at cat slaughterhouses in the Philippines and dog slaughterhouses in Thailand. We found that these activities were not specifically part of the fur trade, since these animals were killed primarily for their skin (though the corpses of dogs killed in Thailand are also used for meat, animal feed, lard, and aphrodisiacs).

The dog and cat skin trade is, like the fur trade, global in scope. Companies that use cat skins from the Philippines and dog skins from Thailand may also be using skins of dogs and cats killed in China and other countries. Any of these skins could be used in products made and sold in Asia, Europe, or even the United States.

What is different between the fur trade and the skin trade is the product. What is the same is the suffering.

Philippine Cat Slaughter
Investigators located one cat slaughterhouse on the island of Mindanao that may kill and skin as many as 100 cats on a given day.

Innocent cats, many of them stolen pets, are slowly and cruelly strangled while other cats watch, terrified, and await their fate. The end product of this horror? Skin drums and other cat skin products sold around the world.

Some skins are exported to Japan for use on drums and guitars. Only male cats are killed for their skins because the nipples of female cats reduce the usable size of the skin. This has led to a scarcity of male cats in the city where the slaughterhouse is located, and collectors now drive to distant cities to round up cats in the street. Some of these cats are strays, but according to sources in the Philippines, most are stolen pets. The cats are stuffed into sacks and driven to the slaughterhouse, a journey that can last up to six hours, without food or water.

While the owners of the cat slaughter operation are extremely wary of strangers, investigators were eventually able to get inside the facility. They found cats crammed into cages, some trying in vain to escape, others paralyzed with fear.

In 1996 the Philippine secretary of agriculture was quoted as saying the slaughter of cats was legal so long as the animals were humanely killed. There was nothing humane about the killing witnessed by the investigators.


One by one, cats were hung from their necks by ropes while other cats watched helplessly. They didn't scream, since the rope was pulled tighter and tighter as they struggled and slowly suffocated.



The cats were then skinned, and the skins were thrown into ice water. Later, workers scraped off the fat, then salted and folded the skins in preparation for packing and shipping. Each skin was valued at about $12.50.

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