Like many people, I thought fur was a thing of the past, remembering those old ladies who came to admire me in pram and pushchair, moth-bitten foxes around their necks, pungent with lavender and mothballs and worse. Later came the campaigns against fashion furs that meant that only the most thick-skinned of dumb animals would be seen alive in another’s coat because of the extreme cruelty across the whole industry.
It was this well-documented cruelty that led to the closure and banning of fur farms in the UK, but in other countries they remain alive and even more sick. I’m not a veggie but I am opposed to cruelty against animals (and wish that all farm production reached the standards of the best.)
So it disgusts me to hear that the big names in fashion and fashion shops are promoting the use of real fur trimming on their garments, and that these are on sale in shops in this country – and that it is perfectly legal to sell these cruelly-produced products. It’s a particularly stupid and callous trade, particularly stupid because in almost all ways the artificial alternatives look and perform better than animal skins. Anyone buying them is paying to wear a badge of cruelty.
Around 250 people joined a march on Saturday past some of the shops selling these tainted goods in Knightsbridge. The march paused briefly outside several shops before halting outside Harrods, apparently the only department store in the UK that still deals in furs, and where there is a regular picket every Saturday. After a brief address and many shouts of “Shame on Harrods”, there was a minute of silence before the march moved on, and I left them.
Outside Harrods in Brompton Road, Knightsbridge.
Surely it’s time the Government made time to ban this trade. It is one piece of legislation which would gain approval from the great majority of the British public and the kind of measure which would provide a sadly needed increase in their support.
Peter Marshall