2015 has been one of the harshest winters on record. And it’s not because of the record snowfall.

Wearing fur with no shame

Fur, it seems, is everywhere — on coats, vests, hats, boots, scarves, collars and hoods. And it’s being worn by not only men and women but also children. For activists, the abundance of fur begs many questions:

• After decades of anti-fur advocacy, why are people wearing it? Are they unaware of the cruelty, or are they simply indifferent to it?
• Has a drop in the number of people protesting on the streets from the 1980s and 1990s fostered an environment where people are comfortable wearing fur?
• Do people wearing fur trim on their collars and hoods know that it’s real? Is it possible that they don’t realize they’re wearing it?
• Do consumers think fur trim is more acceptable or less cruel than a fur coat?
• What should the advocacy community do to stop people from wearing – and glamorizing – fur? Does any one approach work better than the others? Street protests? Pamphlets? Billboards? Ad campaigns? Polite interactions?

TheirTurn will explore many of these questions in upcoming articles. In this report, we look at various methods of fur shaming and ask, does it work? And, is it justified, in light of the fact that the discomfort experienced fur consumers is inconsequential relative to the agony endured by the animals they are wearing?

Rob Banks, a NYC-based animal rights activist, regularly takes to the streets to humiliate people wearing fur: “I strongly feel that publicly shaming those who choose to wear fur is one of the most effective ways to target this cruel industry. The goal is to cause extreme embarrassment, in hopes that they’ll rethink wearing the coat in public again. Once the look is off the streets, it then becomes unfashionable to the public eye.”

Rob Banks photographs fellow activists Michelle (left), Jennifer (middle), and Jaime (right) shaming women in fur

Fur shaming video montage:

Using video footage to publicly shame a fur wearer:

“M’am. This is what happened to those who you are wearing.”

Some activists use a more subtle approach to fur shaming – one that doesn’t use direct confrontation:

Anti-fur sticker: “I am an asshole. I wear fur.”

In mid-December, PETA Asia released undercover footage of workers in China bludgeoning dogs with sticks and peeling off their skin in order to make gloves, belts and other accessories.

Media reports suggest that people around the world are outraged by the violence against the dogs, as they should be. But the dog skin trade is no more abusive than the cow skin trade.

During their treacherous lives on factory farms and in feedlots, cows are branded, castrated and dehorned with no painkillers. Shouldn’t we be equally outraged by these abuses? And, if so, then how can we justify buying cow leather?

Some people argue that dogs deserve a free pass because they’re companion animals. Even if that could be used as a justification, it’s inaccurate. In China, dogs are food. Their skin is another source of revenue, much like cow skin in Western countries.

Dog skin gloves are sold as “leather” in the U.S.

Skin belongs to the animal who was born with it, not to people who want to make things out of it. Suggesting that one animal deserves to keep her skin more than another is arbitrary. With all of the non-animal alternatives available to us, we simply cannot justify stealing anyone’s skin.

Animal rights activists who regularly protest a fur vendor in NYC are accustomed to being showered with profanities and false accustations, but nothing could have prepared them for being showered with with activists say was a shower of bleach.

Bleach pouring down

On Saturday, December 20th, fur vendor employees climbed to the roof of a building and dumped the bleach on the activists below. According to Rob Banks, one of the protest organizers, the bleach also hit a baby (see photo below), and his parents are filing a lawsuit.

Parents of baby on the left are suing fur vendor

Police officers, who were at the scene at the time of the incident, shut down the fur concession and arrested Luis Justino, Lawrence Andrews and David Haber, the owner. All three were charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.

David Haber has become increasingly aggressive with the activists in recent months. In November, witnesses report that he intentionally collided with an activist, fell to the ground and told the police that the activist assaulted him. The activist was arrested at the scene and has spent $2,500 on legal fees.

Fur vendor falsely claims activist assaulted him

The attacks on the activists are also verbal.

Society owes a debt of gratitude to those who put themselves in harm’s way to fight for social justice for those who have no voice.

Humans are the most powerful of all animals species. No one will debate that. But are we superior to all the others? The vast majority of people probably think that we are. After all, we’re the only animals who can travel into outer space, communicate across oceans and keep ourselves alive long past our expiration dates. Our accomplishments are impressive.

On the flip side, we are also the only species that is destroying the planet and its other inhabitants. Other animals take from the earth only what they need to survive and leave it just the way they found it. We, on the other hand, consume far more than we need; permanently pollute the land, water and sky; wipe out other species; and leave the planet in far worse shape than the way we found it. Doesn’t that make us the most inferior species?

This extraordinary video called “Man” viewed by over 12 million people attempts to answer that question.

The demise of the planet from man-made climate change, pollution and mass extinction is a problem that seems too big to fix, but that shouldn’t give us license to act with disregard or give up. Each of us has the power to dramatically reduce our own impact on the earth and its inhabitants. We can consume less; recycle more; and, most importantly, adopt a cruelty-free vegan lifestyle, which is not only good for the environment but also for our health and, of course, the animals.

Activists with Friends of Animals (FOA) staged a bold, in-store protest in the Fur Vault at New York City’s Macy’s, the world’s largest department store. Edita Birnkrant, FOA’s Campaign Director, said, “We entered the Fur Vault and, while chanting into the megaphone, I unraveled the crime scene tape and laid it across the coats. At that point, the manager yelled, ‘Call 911’ and another employee answered ‘I already did.'”

Birnkrant and her three partners in crime (compassion, really) took their anti-fur, pro-kindess message inside the store because “people wake up and think in a more heightened way when they encounter a protest where they don’t expect it and where it’s not supposed to happen — on private property.”

During their seven minutes at the Fur Salon, Birnkrant asked shoppers to make the connection between the fur coats and the animals who were skinned to make them. And, of course, she and her fellow activists chanted: “Hey, Macy’s, what do you say? How did you get your fur today? Gassing, trapping, anal electrocution.” Shortly after they arrived, Macy’s security ushered customers out of the Fur Vault and shut the doors, temporarily halting business on one of the business shopping days of the year.

FOA’s Edita Birnkrant pays her respects to the victims (video screen grab)

The response from shoppers who gathered to watch was mixed. Some applauded, and others challenged them: “As I was chanting ‘Please reject the violence of fur,’ one woman angrily asked “How about the violence to human beings? In response, I said, ‘We can have compassion for people and animals. How we treat each other, how we treat animals, and how we treat the planet are all connected.”  As expected, one shopper shouted, “Plants feel pain too.” There’s one in every crowd.

Angry shopper tells protesters to help people instead (video screen grab)

Birnkrant knew that she and the others might be arrested and wrote the name of a lawyer on her arm just in case: “I honestly had no idea what to expect. Would we be jumped by cops, thrown to the ground and hauled to jail for doing this?” Fortunately, luck was on their side that day: “We were able to pull off a 7-minute in-store protest with a megaphone without getting arrested, and I’m happy about that.”

https://youtu.be/PG3Ndhb5ZPs

Asked why she took the risk, Birnkrant said, “Non-violent civil disobedience has been used by other social justice movements that we all admire. Direct action is needed for the animals who have no voice. We need to be loud, aggressive and disruptive to get peoples’ attention, but we should always be respectful. We’re trying to reach people with a message of compassion, so it can’t come across as simply rage.”

FOA organized the protest in Macy’s Fur Salon, or “Chamber of Horrors,” as Birnkrant refers to it, to coincide with the unveiling of their gigantic “Flip off Fur” billboard in Times Square.

If only this fox could jump off the billboard and bite the people who are wearing his friends

Jane Velez-Mitchell reports on the billboard and the protest on Jane Unchained:

An anti-fur petition created just three days ago has already amassed over 90,000 signatures. Gap Inc.’s Intermix stores sell garments made from raccoon dogs, foxes, rabbits, mink, and kangaroos. Please sign the Change.org petition asking Gap Inc. to make all of its stores fur fur-free.