Dog fur being used to trim coats, Humane Society says

WASHINGTON — That fur trim on your jacket that you think is fake? Tell it to Fido.

An animal-advocacy group says its investigation has turned up coats with fur from man's best friend.

The Humane Society of the United States said it purchased coats from reputable outlets, such as Nordstrom, with designer labels — Andrew Marc and Tommy Hilfiger, for example — and found them trimmed with fur from domestic dogs, even though the fur was advertised as fake.

"It's an industrywide deception," said Kristin Leppert, head of the Humane Society's anti-fur campaign.

The investigation began after the society got a tip. Leppert and her team began buying coats from popular retailers and had the coats tested. Of 25 coats tested, 24 were mislabeled or misadvertised, the society said.

Three coats — one from Tommy Hilfiger's Web site ShopTommy.com, one from Nordstrom.com and one from Andrew Marc's MARC New York line sold on Bluefly.com — contained fur from domesticated dogs. The others had fur from raccoon dogs — a species native to Asia — or, in one case, wolves. The single correctly labeled coat was trimmed with coyote fur, but it was advertised as fake.

One coat that tested as raccoon-dog fur didn't have a label and wasn't advertised.

Most of the fur came from China.

In response to the Humane Society's investigation, Tommy Hilfiger stopped selling the fur-trimmed garment and said it was looking into the matter.

Nordstrom called the 62 consumers who had purchased vests with dog-fur trim to give them the opportunity to return the vests.

Charles Jayson, chief executive of Andrew Marc, disputed the Humane Society and insisted all fur on his coats labeled as raccoon contains "only farm-bred raccoon fur from Finland, and our items labeled 'faux fur' are a 100 percent synthetic fabric."

Importing domestic dog and cat fur was outlawed in 2000.

Raccoon dogs look like oversized, fluffy raccoons and aren't kept as pets. Importing their fur is not illegal, but activists argue they are a dog.

The discovery of domestic dog fur is the latest twist in the investigation that ensnared retail giants Macy's and J.C. Penney late last year. Both retailers were discovered to be selling coats with raccoon-dog fur labeled as raccoon.

J.C. Penney initially removed the garments but eventually had employees scratch out the "raccoon" label with a black marking pen and put the coats back on the shelves. Macy's pulled the items.