Seduced designers buy into fur

Just when we thought the protests might be making a dent and fur clothes-wearers were starting to get it -- the "it" being the utter barbarity behind humans wearing animals' fur -- in comes the report that fur is back, big time.

"Fashion feels fur's warm embrace," said the New York Times on March 10. The fashion shows for next fall's designer clothes were over and, according to the Times, for the first time in more than two decades, more designers are using fur than not.

This "did not just happen," the report went on. It was the result of a marketing campaign -- by furriers. Their targets: clothes designers. Their method: sponsor courses and contests and free trips; provide free furs; generally make it easy for designers to use fur. It worked.

Also mentioned in the Times' coverage: several of the (susceptible) "designers are too young to remember the vicious battles over fur in the 1980s and '90s. . ." And -- hard to believe -- "Others said they felt confident using fur after examining the chain of production and finding it humane."

That does it. The so-called "chain of production" involves murdering animals for their skins, period. How, when and where is that ever "humane"?

Picture this: one designer's showroom features "a big cobalt blue fox coat -- so big it could stand up on its own" -- priced at $6,750.

What was the cost to the foxes who literally died for that coat? How many fewer foxes and other fur-bearing animals are alive today, enjoying the freedom they deserve, all because furriers are greedy, murdering manipulators and greedy, gullible clothes designers scrupulously avoid knowing too much? ("Ignorance of the [moral] law is no defense.")
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/fashion/11FUR.html?emc=eta1

NOTE: CAAF (Concerned Activists Against Fur) sponsors an anti-fur demo on Sunday, March 21, 1-3 pm at Lord & Taylor, Fifth Avenue, NYC. Plan to be there! Join other activists on the 39th St. side of the store.

Good news, please!

A reader’s comment reacting to a recent post here exclaimed at how welcome the good news (about two former service dogs) was. This also happened a few months ago, when a reader wrote some good animal news – about the resurgence of wild turkeys in the area.

It’s true: most of the posts here are in fact warnings or bad news. In part, I think, that reflects what’s actually happening to animals. I only wish it were like most news in the media -- dealing with the exceptions, not the rules. But I don’t think so.

Even so . . . here’s my invitation to any readers with good news about animals: please tell me about it! Then, if at all possible, I’ll post it.

We’d all like to think life is better for animals than it so often seems. But then, all it takes to suggest the real way of the world is a thought about factory farming or the fur industry or zoos and circuses or even the people who leave dogs tied up outside 24/7. . . or those who think the way to celebrate a holiday is to eat an animal.

Calling all good news!
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