Press Comments on Beverly Hills Labeling Initiative

THIS COLUMNIST recently wronged the sophisticated denizens of Beverly Hills by suggesting they might have more money than brains and therefore fall for a silly stunt proposed by animal rights extremists. Instead, common sense and the love of luxe prevailed as the elite enclave's voters this week overwhelmingly rejected a so-called truth-in-slaughtering initiative meant to discourage the purchase of fur coats. My apologies, beautiful people. Marianne Means, Seattle Post Intelligencer, May 16, 1999

EVER SINCE the Beverly Hills fur initiative lost, I've been hearing from animal activists. They've been after me like a pack of dogs at a pig farm. They've growled in anger and whined in dismay at comments I made some weeks earlier about the silliness of their effort to label fur coats with descriptions of how the animals were killed ... One or two of the activists, in a response that could only be compared with foaming at the mouth, went so far as to describe me in terms so crude they'd make a gunnery sergeant blush. The primitive nature of their replies didn't surprise me, for while they've been schooled in the ethical treatment of minks, the ethical treatment of humans is apparently something beyond their abilities to understand. Al Martinez, Los Angeles Times, May 23, 1999

THOUGH VOTERS in this city of elegance rejected a measure requiring fur garments to bear labels explaining how the animals died, the bill's supporters said they won the publicity war. Associated Press Online, May 12, 1999

SOME VOTERS said they had opposed the proposition because they felt that it would mean an undue burden for Beverly Hills furriers and that the tag's wording - that the animal "may have been" killed in a painful manner - would have been too vague.

"I may have been the person who discovered the polio vaccine," said Steven Walfish, the proprietor of a tennis shop. "But I'm not." Christian Berthelsen, The New York Times, May 13, 1999

See also:

Website:
Beverly Hills Coalition for No on A

Biography:
The Adventures of Luke Sissyfag (a.k.a. Luke Montgomery), the brains behind the Bev Hills labeling initiative. From the Sydney Morning Herald, Mar. 23, 1996.

Articles:
May 11: Beverly Hills Voters Reject "Shock Politics"
May 8: Wall Street Journal Questions Bev Hills Labeling Campaign
April 17: Don't Label Beverly Hills By Teresa Platt, Executive Director, FCUSA.
Feb. 11: In Beverly Hills, Fur Is Flying Over Truth-In-Slaughtering Label Direct link to Seattle Post-Intelligencer, with permission.
Feb. 8: Fur Labels Aren't Needed Ventura County Star editorial, reproduced with permission.
Feb. 7: Should Furs Have Tags on How Animals Were Killed? Reader's letter to Westside Weekly, a publication of the LA Times.
Feb. 5: Fur Flies As City's Name Is 'Used'; This Is A Grievous Type of Fraud Beverly Hills Courier editorial, reproduced with permission.
Feb. 3: Hold the Label in 90210 More on labeling initiative.
Jan. 9: Initiative Qualifies by A Hair. How Now in Beverly Hills?
Nov. 23, 1998: Are the Signatures Valid in Beverly Hills? Fur Farmers Think Not
Nov. 6, 1998: Animal Rights Signature Drive Goes Down in Flames in Beverly Hills
June 18, 1998: "Hold the Label," says Teresa Platt, executive director, FCUSA.

For further information contact: Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA, PMB 506, 826 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118-2698 USA, (619) 575-0139, (619) 272-2467/fax, furfarmers@aol.com, www.furcommission.com.

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