Harrods has been slammed for selling toys made from animal fur.
Products on sale this Christmas include a teddy bear wearing a Fendi jumper, made from mink fur and costing £4,200.
A children’s cuddly rabbit covered in the Fendi logo is also made from mink and has a £4,050 price tag.
Among other items being sold at the luxury London department store is a Dior toy rabbit made from orylag – a rare, super-soft rabbit fur which comes from farms near Cognac in France – costing £1,600.
Though many retailers such as Selfridges now refuse to sell fur, some continue to sell brands such as Fendi and Dior, whose products often contain it.
Fur farming has been banned in the UK for over 20 years, but the material is still imported from countries such as China and Finland and sold here.
Claire Bass, of the animal welfare organisation Humane World for Animals, said: ‘Caging and killing beautiful animals to turn them into opulent toys from Harrods couldn’t be more at odds with the spirit of the season.
‘The only fur that children should be experiencing should be where it belongs, on living beings… We urge Harrods to take the inevitable step into a fur-free future and end its complicity with this cruel and dangerous trade.’
Harrods has been criticised for selling Teddy Bears made of real animal fur
One teddy bear today made of real mink fur is going for an eye-watering £42,00
Harrods insisted it follows all the legal requirements on its products
HMRC reports imports of £30-£40million worth of fur each year. Humane World for Animals estimates that the amount of fur imported between 2019 and 2023 equates to approximately seven million animals being killed.
Ruth Jones, Labour MP for Newport West and Islwyn, has introduced a Private Members’ Bill to prohibit the import and sale of fur. It will receive its second reading in the Commons in January.
A spokesman for Harrods said: ‘We carry out all legal requirements properly imposed on the sale of all goods within the store.’ Fendi and Dior did not respond to a request for comment.
