Surprised this hasn't been diaried yet--but there was a very intriguing "Larry King Live" Sunday night. They were talking about how China is dragging its feet regarding dog and cat fur being imported here.
Ryan Seacrest of "American Idol" was guest host. Heather Mills McCartney, Alec Baldwin, Dennis Kucinich and Jim Moran were on. So was Rick Swain, the chief investigator for the Humane Society. The Chinese embassy and International Fur Trade Federation were invited as well, but didn't appear.
Full transcript is here.
More after the jump ...
Heather got interested in this only a short time ago, but dived into it whole hog.
LADY HEATHER MILLS MCCARTNEY, WIFE OF EX-BEATLE: I got a videotape sent to me 11 months ago from Dennis Erdman, who is one of the directors of "Sex in the City." And he had been at our benefit for landmines and said, look, you seem to have made campaigns work. You've got to help us.
And I get asked things every day and the reason landmines works is because I stick specifically to that. But when I watched these images of Alsatian puppies and Golden Retrievers being skinned alive in China for fur to be brought over to Europe, I was just horrified and had to get behind it.
Paul was so horrified by it that he will not perform in China until Beijing gets off its ass and does something.
Heather told Baldwin about this--but he's seen this before working with PETA.
Kucinich and Moran played a huge role in trying to stop this carnage as part of a larger trade bill in 2000. It actually started with activism in Kucinich's hometown of Cleveland.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH, (D) OH: The weatherman at Channel 8 in Cleveland, Dick Goddard, had a tremendous movement started in Cleveland which focused on the Humane Society's 18-month investigation. And when I saw those films, it broke my heart. I mean, you see what's happening to poor and defenseless animals and you want to do something about it. So with the help from Dick and others from Channel 8, what we did was to come together -- we had a big campaign. And thousands of people in Cleveland became involved and it resulted in the support that led me to ask Congress to get included in a trade bill the dog fur -- a bill that would restrict the use of dog and cat fur -- actually ban it in the United States.
The Chinese embassy released a statement in which they tacitly admitted farmers actually skin cats and dogs alive for their fur. And now they may be about to get called on it.
KUCINICH: If you take the Chinese officials at their word this is an important moment. They are for animal rights and they say so in the context of celebrating Buddhism. That would be a moment that the Dalai Lama would applaud. I would add though, that if they are real about this they should submit to voluntary curbs on the export of dog and cat fur from their country and they should also permit open inspection.
We should be able to go. If this group wanted to go, Ryan, all of us, we should be able to go to China and look at those places where wew know this is happening.
SEACREST: What would happen if you wanted to go right now?
KUCINICH: Well, you know, based on this. I'm going to send a letter to the Chinese embassy, saying this the direction they want to go, it's a new era in animal rights, then why don't you invite the Humane Society, PETA and others to come and inspect, and then we'll see.
Surprisingly, we're ahead of Europe on this--the EU hasn't banned dog and cat fur yet. And yet, a large amount of the fake fur that comes into Europe is dog and cat fur.
I know one thing. I was going to order some nightgowns for the missus online. But now just to make sure they don't come from China, I may have to go brick and mortar. For that matter, it's gonna be a long, long time before I allow anything from China in my house.