Great, Stephen...glad to hear you've signed up. 

The fur thing is just awful.  Growing up in Canada, I learned a lot about the fur industry since regions like Quebec, where I was born were founded on fur trade.  We protested the horrible leg-hold traps, and apparently they have now changed over to more "humane" traps which don't cause animal suffering, but are lethal and supposedly "quick".  With leg hold traps, until the trapper came to check his trap line some days later, the animal could freeze, and in the case of beaver, drown.  There is also a very active fur farming industry in Canada, but with  standards for housing and caring for the animals.   Unfortunately the "sealing" still goes on and that includes clubbing the seals, although there was a moratorium on it for a while.  I don't like it, but at least in Canada there are standards which strive to some degree  for the most humane approach, and certainly nothing as abhorrent as the Chinese, who seem to have no regard at all for anything close to humane standards...in fact there are no "standards'.   Yet, it is still in many ways a brutal industry.

The fur lobby in Canada is extremely powerful.  They paint this wonderful picture of an eco-friendly industry, dedicated to animal welfare and their key catch-phrase.."sustainable resource".   Even have a kids section on the site, to give it that "warm, fuzzy" feeling.

http://www.fur.ca/index-e/index.asp

http://www.furcouncil.com/home.aspx

This statement sums it up pretty succinctly:

The fur industry would like us to believe that fur is once again fashionable. But the reality is that the only way they can convince people to wear their product is by disguising its bloody origins. And no matter how much they shave it, dye it, or weave it, fur is still the product of a tortured and slaughtered animal.

http://www.gan.ca/campaigns/fur+trade/overview.en.html