Los Angeles is taking steps to become the largest US city to ban the sale of new fur products.

Following the lead of San Francisco and two smaller California municipalities, Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to direct the city attorney to draft legislation banning the manufacture and sale of fur clothing and accessories.

“This is something that is not just a good legislative win, it’s a moral win,” councillor Bob Blumenfield said. “We feel like we’re evolving as a city, as people to stop this kind of unnecessary cruelty.”

The draft bill must gain final approval by the council and then be signed by the mayor, Eric Garcetti, to be enacted.

Supporters said they hoped adopting a fur ban in the nation’s second largest city, which is also one of the world’s major fashion centres, would encourage similar bans around the globe.

“Los Angeles is one of the fashion capitals of the world, and if we can do it here, we can do it anywhere,” councillor Paul Koretz, a sponsor of the measure, told a news conference before the vote. “We hope that New York City and Chicago and Miami are all watching.”

Under the plan tentatively approved on Tuesday, a fur ban would go into effect in January and be phased in over two years, giving retailers until 2020 to sell off existing inventories. Used fur products would be exempt.

The council is considering an exemption for products used for religious purposes, such as fur hats worn by Orthodox Jews, as well as for items made from pelts legally taken under the authority of a California fur-trapping license.

Major fashion companies, including Michael Kors, Armani and Gucci, have also moved away from using fur. Earlier this month, Burberry said it would stop selling real fur.

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Activists have condemned the fur industry as inhumane, arguing that the animals are subject to brutal conditions and torturous deaths.

However, Keith Kaplan, a spokesman for the Fur Information Council of America, said that while full-length coats of sable and mink may not be as popular as they once were, fur is still found in around 70 per cent of the world’s latest autumn fashion collections.

“If consumers weren’t buying it, fashion houses wouldn’t be designing it, and manufacturers wouldn’t be making it,” he said.

He also disputed as “bogus” claims by animal rights groups that the methods employed by the fur industry are inherently cruel and inhumane.

Retail fur sales globally accounted for $35.8bn (£27.2bn), and the fur industry employed more than one million people in 2014, the latest year figures were available from the industry, Mr Kaplan said.

Fur Free Britain pleads for MPs to ban import of animal fur

Responding to news of the ban, Humane Society International (HSI) called on the British government to work towards making the UK the first country in the world to ban the sale of animal fur.

Farming fur was made illegal in the UK in 2000, and EU law bans fur from domestic cats, dogs and hunted seals. However, Britain imports fur from other species including foxes and rabbits.

Claire Bass, HSI UK’s executive director, said: “A cruel product like fur has no place in the City of Angels, and we applaud the Los Angeles City council for taking a moral stand.

“Now it is time for the UK government to show equal compassion and listen to the vast majority of British people who want the UK to become the first country in the world to fully ban the sale of animal fur.

“Our government has stated its ambition for the UK to be ‘a world leader in animal welfare’, blazing a trail as the first country to outlaw the cruel and unnecessary fur trade would show that this ambition will be delivered with actions, not just words. The sale of cat, dog and seal fur is already banned here so now let’s finish the job and ban fur full stop.”