A keyword perspective on why fur-wearers do it

December 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
Anti-fur campaigners typically believe that fur-wearers wear
fur chiefly because they associate it with glamour and sex appeal.
This may be incorrect.
A keyword search of the 2006 staff-written content of 1,216
newspapers archived at NewsLibrary.com turned up 3,913 articles
associating “fur” with “coat,” and 651 associating “fur” with
“trim.”
Among these articles, 62% linked fur with “independence,”
“liberty,” or “freedom.” The usual context appeared to be furriers
describing buyers as either women of independent minds and income,
or younger people defying pressure from animal rights activists,
portrayed as a vocal minority–but reporters found the remarks worth
quoting.

Fur & Skin

European Commission votes to ban dog & cat fur

December 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
Brussels–The European Commission on November 20 adopted a
proposal to ban the import, export, and sale of cat and dog fur
throughout the European Union.
“The draft regulation will now be considered by the European
Parliament and the Council of Ministers for adoption by the
co-decision procedure,” explained the EC announcement.
“There is evidence that cat and dog fur is being placed on
the European market, usually undeclared as such or disguised as
synthetic and other types of fur,” the EC announcement summarized.
“The vast majority of the cat and dog fur is believed to be imported
from third countries, notably China.”
Fifteen of the 25 EU member nations have already individually
introduced legislation against cat and dog fur. “The proposed
regulation adopted today addresses EU citizens concerns, and creates
a harmonized approach,” the EC announcement stipulated. “It also
establishes a system of information exchange on the detection of cat
and dog fur.”

Bang the drum slowly for Irish greyhounds

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
DUBLIN–The Irish Greyhound Board reportedly used DNA
profiling to trace the owner who abandoned a racing greyhound in
Tramore, County Waterford, in April 2006, after cutting off her
ears to remove her tattoos. The Waterford SPCA found the greyhound
roaming at large. The owner was located in Munster. No further
information about the case has been disclosed.
A furor broke meanwhile when John O’Connor, manager of
Custy’s Traditional Music Shop in Ennis, County Clare, admitted
selling bodhran drums covered with greyhound skin. “We sell
greyhound,” O’Connor told Mark Tighe of the London Sunday Times,
“but the majority of our bodhrans are sourced locally and made from
goat or calf skin. In every tourist shop you go into, those
mass-produced bodhrans would be from the subcontinent and would
generally be greyhound or some other poor-quality skin.”

European Parliament moves against dog & cat fur, seal pelts

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The European Parliament on October 13, 2006 approved a ban
on importing and selling dog and cat fur in member nations, as part
of the first European Community plan for animal protection.
Earlier, on September 6, 368 European Parliament
legislators signed a declaration asking the European Community to ban
imports of seal products from Canada. Not formally endorsed by the
European Union assembly, the non-binding request sought to reinforce
legislation already in effect in Belgium, Italy, and the
Netherlands, and adopted in October by Germany. Norway, the
largest European buyer of Canadian seal pelts, is not a European
Community member.

Mink farm raids

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Midnight raiders on October 14, 2006 released 11,000 mink
from a farm in Oza does Rios, Spain, and released as many as 5,000
from two other sites in Galicia. Galician
farmers produced about 80% of the 400,000 mink who are pelted each
year in Spain, the Barcelona-based animal rights group Fundacion
Altarriba told Associated Press.
About 6,500 mink got past the farm perimeter fences,
Galician authorities said. About 4,550 were recovered within 48
hours, 70% of them dead.
Having fast metabolisms and no hunting experience, ranched
mink rarely thrive after release, but mink who survived in Britain
are blamed for hunting water voles to the verge of extinction.
Efforts to extirpate the mink have not succeeded, but reintroducing
otters is working, reported Laura Benesi of the Oxford University
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit in September 2006.
Bonesi and team released 17 otters into the upper Thames.
“When the otters arrived there were 60 or more mink in this small
area,” Bonesi told Sunday Times environment editor Jonathan Leake.
“The mink did not disappear completely, but within a few months they
were doing much less damage.”

Three states are sued over trapping methods

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Animal Protection Institute, of Sacramento, California,
on September 20 and October 12, 2006 sued the Minnesota Department
of Natural Resources and Maine Department of Inland Fisheries &
Wildlife for permitting trapping by methods that jeopardize
endangered and threatened species.
In Minnesota, API director of wildlife programs Camilla Fox
told Associated Press, “Between 2002 and 2005, at least 13 Canada
lynx were incidentally trapped in snares and traps set for other
species. In Maine, records show that a minimum of five Canada lynx
were caught in traps in 2005 alone. At least two of the lynx were
kittens.”

Anti-fur week in London

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Seventy demonstrators passed out 12,000 anti-fur leaflets in
London between October 9 and October 14, 2006, the Coalition
Against the Fur Trade reported, focusing on Knightsbridge, a
reputed fur sales stronghold.

Locke vetoes Washington trap ban repeal & other state legislative highlights

June 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2003:

Three of the biggest wins for animals during spring 2003
legislative sessions were the defeat of anti-animal bills in
Washington, Texas, and California.
Washington Governor Gary Locke on May 22 vetoed a repeal of
Initative 713, banning the use of body-gripping traps. The
initiative was approved in November 2000 by 55% of the electorate.
It was vulnerable in the legislature because support was concentrated
along the heavily populated eastern shore of Puget Sound, which is
proportionally underrepresented in both the state house and senate
relative to rural districts.
Despite vetoing the repeal bill, Locke asked the state
Department of Fish and Wildlife to “place limited enforcement
resources into higher-order priorities than against homeowners,
businesses, and the timber industry, that trap for moles, gophers,
and mountain beavers.”

BOOKS: Whose Coat?

May 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

Whose Coat?
by John Luksetich, illustrated by Patti Kern
Imagine Nation Press (P.O. Box 172, Lakewood, CA 90714;
<www.imagenationpress.com>), 2001. 26 pages, hardcover. $14.95.

Marketing is not Whose Coat? author/publisher John
Luksetich’s forte. First he was unable to find a commercial
publisher for Whose Coat? in 17 years of trying, even though it is
eminently marketable. Then, when he published Whose Coat? himself
in an attractive format that ought to sell, he forgot to put the
price on either the book, the promotional flyers he sent to ANIMAL
PEOPLE, or the first few pages of his web site–and he advertised it
as “animal rights” literature, the kiss of death in pursuing the
library and school markets that account for the two biggest shares of
children’s book sales. To most librarians and school personnel,
“animal rights” signifies “controversy” and “trouble”–and any
mention of ideology in reference to a children’s book usually also
connotes heavyhanded propaganda.

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