That faux fur you're wearing may actually be made out of dog - specifically raccoon dog, a small canine found in Asia.

You wouldn't know it by looking at the label, however, because federal law only requires clothing manufacturers to disclose the inclusion of fur on a clothing item if its value is more than $150. The Humane Society of the United States has been agitating for years to close the loophole. Now, they have a friend in Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, who has introduced legislation requiring the "conspicuous" labeling in California of any clothing that includes real fur. Similar laws have already been approved in five other states, including New York.

"A lot of people are buying fake fur because they don't want to buy the real thing, but they like the look and the feel," she said, noting that some consumers are allergic to animal fur. "There's an assumption when you buy a product at a certain price that it is fake fur, but that's not true. All we are saying is, 'Label it.' ... This is about a consumer's right to know as well as animal rights."

Ma is betting the bill will play well in her hometown, a shopping mecca and famously dog-friendly city. But she doesn't expect much opposition in the Capitol either. The California Retailers Association - whose counterparts in other states have opposed similar bills - has not had a chance to review the legislation yet, said Bill Dombrowski, the group's president.

Ma was joined at a news conference Wednesday by the Humane Society's Pierre Grzybowski, who runs the organization's "Fur-Free Campaign." Grzybowski showed off a number of clothing items - including jackets, a sweatshirt and a pair of boots - that he recently purchased at Bay Area stores. All of the items, he said, had fur trim - some rabbit and most raccoon dog -but none of them listed fur as a material on the labels.

"Raccoon dogs are raised by the millions in China and in smaller numbers in Finland," he said. "A good number of them are skinned alive (in China) because of the lack of animal welfare laws or oversight. Raccoon dogs' fur is by far the most commonly mislabeled and misrepresented, but you also find rabbit, raccoon and coyote fur not labeled."

Grzybowski said it can be difficult to tell what's real and what's fake because the fur is often dyed. He recommended pushing the hairs apart and looking closely at the base of any fur-like material to see if it looks like skin - meaning it's real - or threads, which are used to bond faux fur together. If you already own an item of clothing, he said, you can pluck a few hairs off and light them on fire - if it smells and burns like hair it's real fur, he said, but if it smells like plastic it's fake.