California ban on new fur products is first in US

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law Saturday, making the state the first to ban the sale of new fur products.

Los Angeles and San Francisco have already put fur bans in place and last month the governor signed a law banning commercial fur trapping.

Newsom also signed another bill Saturday, banning most animals in circuses. Hawaii and New Jersey have similar bans.

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The new bans join other recent California actions against for-profit prisons and immigrant detention centers and small-sized hotel shampoo bottles.

The new fur law, which takes effect in 2023, was lauded by animal rights activists despite fervent opposition from the billion-dollar U.S. fur industry and threats of a lawsuit from the Fur Information Council of America.

"California is a leader when it comes to animal welfare, and today that leadership includes banning the sale of fur," Newsom said in a statement. "But we are doing more than that. We are making a statement to the world that beautiful wild animals like bears and tigers have no place on trapeze wires or jumping through flames."

A spokesperson for the Fur Information Council said in a statement the new law is part of a "radical vegan agenda using fur as the first step to other bans on what we wear and eat.”

Couture designers like Versace, Gucci and Giorgio Armani have either stopped using fur or pledged to in their collections and designers like Stella McCartney use no animal products in their designs.

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"The signing of AB 44 underscores the point that today's consumers simply don't want wild animals to suffer extreme pain and fear for the sake of fashion," Kitty Block, CEO and president of the Humane Society, said.

The ban excludes used fur, fur used for religious or tribal purposes, as well as leather, dog and cat fur, cowhides, deer, sheep and goatskin and taxidermy.