California has become the first US state to ban the sale of animal fur products.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Friday that will make it illegal to sell, donate or manufacture new fur products in the state.

The bill, AB44, was authored by state assembly member Laura Friedman, and applies to all new clothing, handbags, shoes and other items made with fur. Those found breaking the law could face a fine of $500 (£395) or in repeat cases, $1,000. Each fur item sold could be treated as a separate violation.

AB44 bans the manufacture and sale of new fur products across the state and is already considered to be the most ground-breaking moment for the anti-fur campaign for many years.

San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to ban the sale of fur last year. Berkeley, Los Angeles and West Hollywood have enacted similar bans.

“California is a leader when it comes to animal welfare and today that leadership includes banning the sale of fur,” Gov Newsom said in a statement.

“We’ve known from people who’ve gone undercover for years in the fur industry that it is impossible to be assured of humanely raised fur,” said Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale (Los Angeles County), who carried the bill.

The tactics of the fur industry has been exposed during this process, as it was revealed corporate interests paid people off to help kill the bill. They also tried to pay a high school activist to publicly oppose a bill banning fur products in California— but instead, she blew the whistle.
 
“They told me I could get paid to pretend to be a grassroots opponent of the fur ban, even after I told them that I don’t oppose it,” she said.
 
There were also posts on Facebook also promised “an easy $100” fighting tyranny, that were created by Andrew DiGiovanna, who verbally opposed the bill during public hearings- actually a ploy to get people to pose a grassroots organization opposing the fur ban.
 
The Fur Council of America reported spending more than $100,000 on lobbying efforts between January and June 2019.

In September, California passed into law a new ban on fur trapping, becoming the first state to outlaw the practice widely considered to cause untold suffering to wild animals. The Wildlife Protection Act of 2019 was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newson on Wednesday 5  September. The legislation prohibits commercial or recreational trapping on both public and private lands.

• The California fur ban was made possible after several cities in the state passed similar fur bans. Help make a national fur ban more likely in the UK by contacting your local authorities and urging them to adopt our fur-free policy. More online at www.respectforanimals.org/fur-free-markets .