California Outlaws New Fur Sales Starting in 2023

Photo by Marcus Bellamy on Unsplash

Retailers in California have three years to clear their existing fur inventory and cease new fur sales. On Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 44, making the Golden State the first state to adopt an outright ban on selling or manufacturing new fur items.

Much like the San Francisco city-wide fur sales ban before it, the state ban isn’t eliminating all hide sales in California. According to a signing statement from the governor’s office, the new law exempts leather, cowhide and shearling, as well as fur products used for religious purposes. The law also has provisions that exempt taxidermy products, fur from an animal lawfully taken with a hunting license, and used fur.

So what’s included in the ban? AB 44 makes it “unlawful to manufacture, sell, offer for sale, display for sale, trade, give, donate, or otherwise distribute a fur product in the state.” The prohibition applies to clothing, handbags, shoes, slippers, hats, or key chains that contain fur, and provides for a civil penalty for each violation.

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

But fur isn’t the only pellis non grata in the state. Newsom also signed AB 1260, which adds more types of animals—iguana, skink, caiman, hippopotamus, and three types of lizards—to the import and trade prohibition of dead animals and dead animal parts. The state also—finally—set an enactment date on the alligator and crocodile skins ban that was passed in 1970. (Apparently the exotic-skins industry has been fighting ever since to keep it from going into effect.) The ban will go into effect on January 1, 2020.

Keep in mind that the sales bans don’t make it illegal for consumers to own or wear these items, and vintage fur and skin sales are generally allowed. There are some exceptions for endangered animal skins, as you might remember from Decades of Fashion owner Cicely Hansen’s run-in with the law in 2018.

Shop vintage, buy faux, it’s your choice. But, come 2023, California will be a (mostly) fur-free zone.