FUR

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Encouraged by the reopening of

Bloomingdale’s Maximilian fur salon in

New York on November 29, the fur trade

still claims sales are up after a five-year

slump, projecting 1993 retail receipts of

$1.2 billion––but once again hard numbers

tell a different story. As of Christmas,

advertised retail fur prices were still plung-

ing to new lows in inflation-adjusted dollars.

Mink coats, furs priced at $5,000 or more,

and the overall average fur price were all

down 25% from the previous record lows

reached in 1992, The total volume of fur

advertising was down 17%, despite promi-

nent early fall cooperative promotional

efforts. Further indications of falling

demand include the 1993 mink and fox pro-

duction figures published in Fur Age

Christmas poll

January 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

A nationwide Los

Angeles Times poll of 1,612

adults, taken December 4-7 and

published Christmas Day, found

that 54% of Americans oppose

sport hunting, including 65% of

women, 41% of men, and 60%

of people ages 18-29; 50%

object to wearing fur, including

58% of women, 40% of men,

and 57% of people ages 18-29;

and 47% agreed with the state-

ment that, “Animals are just

like humans in all important

ways,” including 52% of women

and 61% of people ages 18-29.

FURRIERS STRUGGLING

December 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:

If fur is making a comeback, it isn’t evident in the retail price index kept by

ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton since 1988. The volume of fur merchandise

advertised in the greater New York metropolitan area as of Fur Free Friday 1993 was identi-

cal to 1992, as was the average price, excluding sable. The advertised volume of sable,

the highest-priced fur, was up fivefold, with the average price up from $25,000 to

$38,750––but the advertised volume of mink held steady, while the average mink price was

down 30%. “They’re in a steep slump and swinging for home runs to compensate,” Clifton

said. “Mink is traditionally 80% of their trade, but they aren’t picking up new customers

even at steep discounts, so they’re trying to buy sable low from the cash-strapped former

Soviet republics and sell it high to the handful of customers they’ve kept.” It’s too early to

project sales figures for the whole winter, Clifton continued, with the Christmas and

Valentine’s Day sales periods still ahead, “but so far there’s no sign that increased fur adver-

tising expenditures are significantly paying off. They’re just spending more money to stay

where they are.” Just before the fall fur ad blitz began, Evans Inc., accounting for roughly

10% of U.S. retail fur sales, reported a second-quarter drop of 7.4% in same-store sales as

compared to last year.

FUR IS STILL DEAD: Industry numbers confirm collapse, despite claims

November 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

Daniel A, the successor to the bankrupt Antonovich fur chain, itself declared bank-

ruptcy in early October. The high-profile collapse, on the heels of a previous collapse, under-scored the continuing crash of the fur trade. Despite the Fur Information Council of America claim that retail fur sales rose to $1.1 billion last year, ending a four-year decline, other data newly released by the fur trade itself confirms the ANIMAL PEOPLE projection based on gar-ment and pelt prices that sales actually fell to between $648 and $750 million. Evans Inc., annu-ally accounting for about 10% of U.S. fur sales, sold $107 million worth of goods––but trim items with minimal fur content accounted for $30.4 million of it. The fur trade claimed mink pelt prices were up 30%, but Wisconsin, accounting for nearly 25% of U.S. mink production, recorded a 16% drop in sales and a 13% drop in revenue, indicating only a marginal price rise. The number of U.S. fur garment wholesalers also fell, from 2,200 at the start of 1992 to just 1,500 going into this winter. Finally, a study of the fur trade done by Southwick Associates for the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies confirms the accuracy of the ANI-MAL PEOPLE model of fur trade economics, coming within 11% of the ANIMAL PEOPLE projections in 17 of 18 major categories of information. The only wider variance is in the esti-mates of retail jobs produced: Southwick found four times as many by counting all employees of retailers who sell fur, instead of counting only those who actually work in fur sales. The ANI-MAL PEOPLE model was developed in early1988 by editor Merritt Clifton, under contract with the Humane Society of the U.S., and has been used to produce yearly estimates of fur trade eco-nomic data ever since. The Southwick Associates model is based on 1990 statistics obtained directly from the fur trade and state wildlife departments.

FUR

October 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

ARE FUR SALES UP OR DOWN?

U.S. retail fur sales rose to $1.1

billion in 1992, ending a four-year slump

during which sales fell from $1.8 billion to

just $1 billion––says the Fur Information

Council of America.

But the FICA figures, published

in the September 21 Wall Street Journal,

are open to question––not least because it’s

hard to boost sales with markedly fewer

sales outlets. Nearly half the fur retail out-

lets of five years ago are now out of the fur

business. Among them are 34 of the 50 out-

lets formerly owned by Evans Inc., which

controlled 10% of the U.S. retail fur trade;

20 of the 49 Jindo and Fur Vault franchises;

and the entire Furrari and Antonovich

chains, both of which went bankrupt.

ANIMAL HEALTH

October 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

IN THE VETERINARY CLINIC

Despite concerns about bites and animal-transmitted

disease, veterinary staff are as often hurt on the job by ordi-

nary slips, trips, falls, and lifting injuries, according to sta-

tistics supplied to ANIMAL PEOPLE by the American

Veterinary Medical Association Professional Liability Insurance

Trust. From 1988 through 1992, dog bites accounted for 16.3%

of claims, cat bites for 13.8%, kicks by horses and cattle for

5.2%, and all other injuries done by animals combined amounted

to just 4.1%––but slips, trips, and falls came to 17.2%, while

lifting totaled 16.2%. Three-fourths of the lifting injuries

involved lifting “small” animals, whose weight and ability to

struggle were probably underestimated by the injured. Average

costs per claim were $2,808 for animal-related lifting injuries;

$6,253 for other lifting injuries; $6,212 for slips, trips, and falls;

$4,174 for horse and cow-kicks; $1,527 for dog bites; and $678

for cat bites. Job safety statistics have apparently never been

compiled for animal control officers and shelter workers, but

similar ratios may apply.

If Imelda Marcos goes cruelty-free, Frank Zigrang might get rich; NON-LEATHER SHOE KING SHOWS HUMANE MERCHANTS HOW

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

DAKOTA CITY, Iowa––”I’ve learned everything the hard way,” Frank

Zigrang states, “and I’m still learning from my mistakes.”

Zigrang founded his mail-order non-leather shoe firm, Heartland Products

in 1986, with no experience in either direct-mail sales or the shoe business. But in

six months as a vegetarian, Zigrang had discovered a vacant market niche, and as a

career businessman, he didn’t waste time moving to fill it. Heartland now boasts a

customer list of 30,000, annual sales of $100,000, and turns a modest profit.

“I’m making a living, anyway,” Zigrang admits. “It maybe isn’t much of

a living by some people’s standards, but I still have other business interests,”

including a share in the family grain farm run by his older brother.

Zigrang has become legendary in the animal protection community

through his frequent sales exhibits at half a dozen regional conferences per year.

But that’s not the key to his success. “I just do that for visibility,” he explains. “To

sell anything, you have to stay visible.” The keys, he emphasizes, “are the old

business stand-bys. That’s price, convenience, and quality. If you can’t sell some-

thing for less than the store at the mall, you sell something better than they have

down at the mall, or something they don’t stock, and you make it more convenient

for your customers to place an order with you than to drive down to the mall. You

stay in touch with your customers. That’s how you get repeat orders. You stock

what they want.”

FUR

September 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

“The American Veterinary

Medical Association considers the steel-

jaw leghold trap to be inhumane,” accord-

ing to a single-sentence policy statement

issued in mid-July, culminating years of lob-

bying by George Clements of the

Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing

Animals. The AVMA had long been reluc-

tant to oppose trapping because many mem-

bers wish to avoid being associated with ani-

mal rights militancy. At that, the words

“steel-jaw” were reportedly added under

pressure from the National Trappers

Association, which feared that the statement

might otherwise be taken to include padded

leghold traps and foot snares. This could

have been devastating to the fur industry

push to get padded leghold traps, snares,

FUR

July 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

A frequent target of animal

rights protesters for keeping marine mam-

mals in captivity, Marine World/Africa

USA is also under fire from the California

Fur Industry Inc. for describing the near-

annihilation of wild serval cats by the fur

trade during educational presentations at the

amusement park’s Wildlife Theatre.

“Fur trade officials are now

receiving Indian Affairs funds, which

should be going to First Nations,” the

Aboriginal Trappers Federation of Canada

charged in a public statement at the recent

North American Fur and Fashion Exposition

in Montreal. The statement referred to the

allocation of funds from Indian and Northern

Affairs Canada to the Wildfur Council of

North America, a pro-trapping group with

little Native American representation.

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