Celebrity backing for EU dog-fur ban

Speaking in Brussels, Mrs McCartney said: "It’s barbaric that this is going on." She held back tears as she held up a fur coat made from skins of 42 Alsatian puppies.

"I became aware of this trade only four months ago," she said. "It was a big shock to myself and my family considering my husband and his late wife Linda were involved in animal rights. None of them knew about the dog and cat fur exports from China and the fact that Europe is importing it."

The United States and Australia have already banned the trade, as have EU member nations Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece and Italy. The campaigners now want the ban to be extended to all 25 EU nations.

During yesterday’s campaign press conference, a video was shown of emaciated dogs and cats kept in dark, cramped rooms and cages. It also portrayed the slaughter of a German shepherd. Dogs are sometimes skinned while still breathing. Cats are usually strangled.

Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson has campaigned for the past five years for an EU-wide ban. He said that, after previously watching the film, "I couldn’t sleep for two months".

The campaigners say about two million cats and dogs are killed each year for their fur, mostly in China, and shipped to other parts of the world under false labels or no label at all.

Activists have been campaigning for five years to have a ban passed by the EU head office and hoped the new EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou will finally help pass a ban.

Mrs McCartney, whose ex-Beatle husband is known for his animal rights activism, criticised the fashion industry for using furs. "How can anyone think this is beautiful?" she asked.

The Commission said that it was investigating the situation. "Commissioner Kyprianou is very concerned about this practice and has asked his services to look into the legal avenues which are open to the Commission to act," said the European Commission consumer protection spokesman Philip Tod.