DawnWatch: Fantastic anti fur column in UK Daily Mail — 30 November 2006
November 30th, 2006 5:47 pm by Kelly Garbato———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch – news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: Nov 30, 2006 4:54 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: Fantastic anti fur column in UK Daily Mail — 30 November 2006
Liz Jones, the UK’s Daily Mail fashion columnist, has written another strong anti-fur piece, headed, “Fur is back…and the fashion industry should hang its head in shame.”
She writes about the difficulty of finding anything not covered or trimmed in fur at designer stores such as Prada. She tells us her friends are wearing, though some wear only vintage. And she writes, “Vintage is, when it comes to ethics, no defence. Although the animal has long been dead, wearing the coat still gives off the message that fur is beautiful, and acceptable.”
She wonders, “how on earth did British women become so, well, cruel?”
She notes the many celebrities who are now wearing it — Kate Moss for example. One buyer for a large chain says, “Fur is such a luxury. It’s opulent, it feels nice to wear. Ooh, and Kate Moss wearing it definitely helps.”
On Beyoncé’s fur wardrobe Jones comments,
“Perhaps Beyoncé should remember the words of the powerful black author Alice Walker: ‘The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans, any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.’
She mentions PETA’s video of a fox being skinned alive, writing, “you can see the fox blinking and looking around in shock after it has been reduced to a bloody pulp.”
She continues:
“Let’s look at the grisly facts of fur. Although every time I write an anti-fur piece I receive an admonishing letter from the British Fur Trade Association, it should be remembered that fox and mink and rabbit are, by nature, wild, shy creatures that become incredibly stressed in cages. Another horrible fact: more than two million cats and dogs are killed for their fur in China every year. Some still have their collars on when they are slaughtered — meaning they were once much-loved pets.
“In China, many of the animals are still alive when the workers hang them up by their hind legs to skin them. Cats are strangled within their cages while other cats look on, and dogs asphyxiated with metal wires. With no animal welfare considerations, the pelts produced are so cheap that China is now the biggest exporter of fur in the world.
“Recent talk of an EU ban on dog and cat fur is a positive step, but it is impossible to DNA test every fur item that comes into Europe, and these fur products are not labelled as real fur at all.”
(Note: The US has a ban on dog and cat fur but coats are not widely DNA tested. On Larry King Live late last year campaigners talked of being given tours of Chinese dog fur farms and being told that the producers are happy to put any label on anything.)
Jones gives the last word to designer Stella McCartney, “For me, it is a principle. I just don’t understand why these beautiful creatures have to die for someone’s coat. It is both medieval and barbaric, and I think there are plenty of alternatives out there. Comfy? Warm? The very idea leaves me cold.”
You’ll find the whole article on line here or tinyurl.com/yguuha.
At the bottom of that page you can comment. Please do! Liz Jones and the Daily Mail need to know she has plenty of support.
And let’s balance out the admonishing letter Jones expects to get from the Fur Trade Association with some letters to the editor appreciative of her stance. The Daily Mail takes letters at letters [at] dailymail.co.uk.
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. And remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published.
Yours and the animals’,
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at www.DawnWatch.com. You are encouraged to forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts but please do so unedited. Please leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line.)
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Tagged: animals animal+rights action+alerts dawnwatch fur liz+jones Beyoncé prada kate+moss PETA fox dog cat canine feline china British+Fur+Trade+Association animal+skin
