PeTA Quits Fur War! Next Stop Leather
FUR COMMISSION USA COMMENTARY, MARCH 15, 2000
PeTA Quits Fur War! Next Stop Leather
By Simon Ward, Communications Director, FCUSA
CAN IT BE TRUE? Can People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the American fur industry’s biggest bug-bear, really be giving up on fur?
If one believes PeTA boss Ingrid Newkirk, or at least the accuracy of the New York Times’ reporting, the answer is yes.
On Feb. 15, just days after her minions attacked three New York fashion shows featuring fur with paint and tofu pies, Newkirk was quoted as calling those attacks “our last hurrah” in the war on fur.(1)
On the same day, PeTA launched its “skins” campaign, with the aim of doing for leather what it claims it has already done for fur: bury it.
The fact that fur, far from being dead, is making a spectacular comeback,(2)did not escape Newkirk’s interviewer, Ginia Bellafante.
“Ms. Newkirk believes that the group has won the battle against fur,” she wrote, “even though mink has continued to turn up all over runways. … She said that starting today, it will begin a new chapter, with a battle against leather.”
“The new fur war is the leather war,” Newkirk told Bellafante. “There’s far more leather than fur on the catwalk.”
Meanwhile, PeTA fur campaign coordinator RaeLeann Smith filled in some details for the LA Times.(3) ”It’s a continuing fight. Now we have the luxury of adding other campaigns,” she said, somewhat disingenuously, considering PeTA has never been shy about campaigning on any animal use issue that takes its fancy.
She also added, insultingly, that PeTA assumes consumers don’t know “what happens before a cow becomes a belt or a football.”
But the LA Times was understandably leery about PeTA’s latest headline-grabbing attempt.
“It’s significant that in 20 years, PETA hasn’t included leather in its protests,” it commented. “Smith said that’s because ‘you attack industries where the most suffering occurs.’ But by that measure, leather would have been their first target because far more people wear leather than can afford to wear fur.”
The LA Times also asked who PeTA’s new targets would be as the battle lines are redrawn. “The distinction between who gets attacked and who doesn’t is blurry. Calvin Klein, once a PETA target [for using fur], is now hailed as a good guy on PETA’s Web site … even though he still uses leather.” And what of makers of leather shoes, purses, organizers, car seats, watch straps and briefcases? The list of potential tofu targets is endless!
The NY Times, for its part, wondered what the impact would be of a new PeTA “documentary” on alleged cruelties suffered by cows in the leather-making process. “The average person will be sickened,” Newkirk was quoted as saying. “Perhaps, or he just may go on eating his hamburger,” was the Times’ retort.
***
But back to fur.
Was PeTA’s “last hurrah” on the catwalks for real, or was it a figment of Newkirk’s imagination fed to the interviewer to give more weight to the launch of the “skins” campaign?
RaeLeann Smith, for one, seems to have been taken by surprise – or was she just protecting her job as fur campaign coordinator? Either way, she wasn’t coordinating with her boss.
In that same LA Times interview, which appeared three days after Newkirk’s “last hurrah” announcement, Smith said PeTA “would continue to target fashion shows ‘until there is no fur on the runways’.”
The next time PeTA attends a fashion show, we’ll presumably find out who’s calling the shots. If it’s still Newkirk, the tofu pies will be reserved for leather-clad models only. But her cohorts might have a few behind their backs for fur too.
Meanwhile, speculation surrounds Newkirk’s recent relocation back to her native Britain.
One theory is that she wants to join the fight to ban fur farming there. A bill to do just that has been introduced by the government, but debate on it has stalled.
The only drawback to this theory is that Newkirk is on record as saying the bill is already law!
Referring to an American bill backed by Sen. Russ Decker that would increase penalties for releasing captive animals, Newkirk told a Wisconsin newspaper, “If this senator or anyone wants to stop the liberations, they should do what has just been done in England – ban the fur farms, make them illegal.”(4)
***
In summary, Newkirk believes PeTA has won the fur war, despite its spectacular comeback. And Newkirk believes fur farming has been banned in Britain, which it hasn’t.
She may also believe the New York catwalk attacks were PeTA’s “last hurrah” in the fur war. But they almost certainly weren’t!
NOTES:
(1) “Throwing Down the Anti-Leather Gauntlet”, New York Times, Feb. 15, 2000.
(2) See Fur Sales Up in 1999 Fur Information Council of America press release, May 31, 2000.
(3) “The Fur Fury; Is PeTA Driven by Animal Rights or Resentment of the Rich?”, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 18, 2000.
(4) “Decker bill would increase penalties for mink vandals”, Wausau Daily Herald, Feb. 11, 2000.
See also:
In Their Own Words Memorable quotes from the mouths of PeTA.
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