Taobao Store Pulls Listing After Cat Fur Backlash, Blames Factory

Chicyou, a womenswear store with more than 2 million followers on Chinese shopping platform Taobao, has pulled a clothing listing amid an online backlash over the use of cat fur.

In an apology, the brand said a partner factory violated its procurement standards without authorization, replacing part of the intended fox fur with cat fur. It said it had suspended production and sales arrangements for the affected product.

The item had not officially gone on sale when Internet users discovered the issue. Only a product link had been posted, the womenswear brand said.

The controversy has drawn attention to a material that industry specialists say is rarely used, despite recurring reports of suspected cat-fur clothing, Jiemian News reported today.

An unnamed fur-industry worker told Jiemian he had never seen or used cat fur and questioned why a manufacturer would choose it even to cut costs. Rabbit fur and artificial fur were much cheaper alternatives, he said.

Li Xinxin, an engineer at Guangdong Guangfang Testing Technology Co, said she had never received a request to identify cat fur or detected it in any sample during her fur-material identification work. Rabbit, sheep, fox, raccoon dog and mink were common materials tested.

The legitimate fur industry generally does not buy cat fur as a production material, Li said. Current material-identification standards also lack a dedicated testing method for it.

Experts from the China Leather Industry Association told China Youth Daily in 2018 that, without standardized breeding, cat and dog pelts could not be supplied sustainably in sufficient quantities and were costly to obtain. Rabbit fur was cheaper, more readily available and could be dyed to resemble other patterns.

Mink, silver foxes, Arctic foxes and raccoon dogs are listed in China's national livestock and poultry genetic resources catalog, providing a regulatory framework for their fur supply chains. Cat fur has no dedicated regulatory system. Hao Dahai, a lawyer at Shanghai Huawan Law Firm, told Jiemian that no current law specifically prohibited selling cat-fur products.

Chicyou had not responded to Jiemian's questions regarding how it would dispose of the goods and prevent them from reaching the market through other channels.