Fur
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:
Canadian environment minister Sheila Copps,
whose gracelessness earned her the nickname “Leader of
the rat pack” during her years as a Parliamentary back-
bencher, disrupted a meeting of top environmental offi-
cials from the seven major Western industrialized nations
on March 12 by denouncing the European Community ban
on seal pelt imports, the pending EC ban on imports of
pelts trapped by cruel methods, and opposition to the cur-
rent Canadian seal hunt. Copps claimed an alleged popula-
tion explosion of seals is causing the collapse of the
Atlantic Canada fishing industry, despite strong biological
evidence that seals do not eat many fish of the most com-
mercially valued species.
The New York Fur Factory Inc., of Cherry
Hill, New Jersey, held a bankruptcy sale on February
23––the third leading New York-area furrier to fold in
under three months.
Fake fur was reportedly prominent in the
Paris and Milan fall fashion collections, shown in early
March. Real fur apparently appeared only as trim on
Fendi and Gianfranco Ferre fake fur garments.
After designer Calvin Klein quit leasing his
label to the fur trade in January, PETA adapted cam-
paign materials to use to target Anne Klein instead. But
Anne Klein Co. owner Frank Mori immediately announced
that his firm too had decided to get out of furs some time
ago. While PETA proclaimed a victory, Mori responded
in an open letter published by the New York Daily News
that he had developed a “profound distate for the extortion-
ate manner” he said PETA demonstrated in dealing with
him, and called PETA’s whole involvement a “self-
aggrandizing publicity stunt.”
While no one protested against the Norwegian
resumption of commercial whaling during the
Lillehammer Winter Olympics, PETA and the Norwegian
group NOAH spent $30,000 to place posters of nude fash-
ion models proclaiming “We’d rather go naked than wear
fur” on buses throughout Scandinavia. Norway spends $9
million a year to subsidize the fur trade.
The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and
Wildlife is reportedly appealing a recent Superior Court
ruling that the 1974 state ban on leghold traps applies to
padded traps as well as those with bare steel jaws.
Meanwhile, Citizens to End Animal Suffering and
Exploitation is promoting a state humane trapping bill
introduced with 17 cosponsors that would override DFW
attempts to weaken the 1974 law through regulation by
banning “all cruel and inhumane traps.”
