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Wearing fur made Susan Adriensen feel glamorous, but a 2005 trip to Holland, where she received unwanted stares for wearing fur, changed that. When she returned home, Adriensen tucked her two furs in her closet and forgot about them — until she saw a video about fur industry on social media. “I knew my coats were made out of animals, but I never thought about how the fur got from the animal onto my coat,” said Adriensen. “When I finally learned about the violence, I felt I decided to say ‘furwell’ to my coats and to make amends.”

Over the course of several months in 2017 and 2018, Adriensen, who became an animal rights activist, decided to put her fur coats to good use. In Hoboken, a suburb of NYC, Adriensen and her fellow activists with the group E.A.R.T.H. (Environmentalist Animal Rights Team of Hoboken), laid the fur coats on top of makeshift tombstones and used peoples’ interest in the provocative display to educate them about the horrors of the fur industry.”

Susan Adriensen prepares to deliver her fur coats to a wild animal rescue facility in New Jersey.

“We saw very few full length fur coats, but we encountered hundreds of people wearing fur trim,” said Michal Klein, an activist with E.A.R.T.H. “While we can’t change the hearts and minds of everyone who saw us, we do feel like our advocacy compelled some people to remove the trim and to consider animals when buying clothes in the future.”

When winter ended, Adriensen, Klein and other E.A.R.T.H. activists, delivered the fur coats to a wildlife rehabilitation facility for orphaned animals. Within minutes of their arrival, baby squirrels and opossums were nuzzling in the fur.

Orphaned wild animals find comfort in fur coats donated to rescue centers and sanctuaries

“I wish their mothers were alive so that these babies didn’t need to seek comfort in discarded fur, but I’m happy that my furs have been repurposed to give them some comfort,” said Adriensen.

In the mid-1990s, fashion designer Anna Tagliabue wanted to launch a line of luxury faux fur clothing. The technology, however, wasn’t available. Twenty years later, Ms. Tagliabue staged her a runway show during NYC’s prestigious Fashion Week.  Dozens of NYC fashionistas filled the seats, and, by all accounts, they loved what they saw:

While Ms. Tagliabue loves design, it was her love of animals – and her desire to protect them – that motivated her to start her company, Pelush. “Education and awareness about the plight of animals must come from fashion — not just food,” said Ms. Tagliabue. “With all of the beautiful, cruelty-free alternatives, people have no excuse to continue wearing fur and other animal skins.”

Pelush Runway Show in NYC during Fashion Week

When asked how activists who confront people on the street will know that someone is wearing a faux-fur Pelush garment, Ms. Tagliabue said she plans to sew on a patch that will be easily recognizable – similar to Canada Goose.

Fashion design Anna Tagliabue with models from her runway show during NYC Fashion Week

Pelush fans photograph the models after the show

Ms. Tagliabue says that her one-of-a-kind, cruelty-free designs serve as a “wonderful alternative to real fur for compassionate women in search of glamour, comfort and the warmth of a plush coat.”

NYC animal rights activists make the V for vegan symbol on the red carpet after walking the Pelush runway wearing t-shirts with messages about kindness to animals

Animal rights activists have pleaded with fashion designer Michael Kors to stop using – and promoting – fur. But, on June 21st, they stopped asking nicely. As Kors delivered remarks to a packed theater in NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, over 20 animal rights activists occupied the stage and the balcony while chanting and playing the sounds of animals being killed for fur.  After several minutes, event organizers escorted Kors out of the theater, shutting down the event for approximately ten minutes.

Over 20 activists disrupted Michael Kors during his talk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (photo on right: AFP Photo)

“If Michael Kors wants to profit off of animals who are skinned alive, anally electrocuted, gassed or captured in painful steel leg hold traps, then he is going to have to face a new reality – never knowing for certain when we will disrupt his public appearances or retail stores,” said Rob Banks, an organizer of the protest.

In spite of protests, Michael Kors continues to design with real animal fur.

During Fashion Week (Feb, 2017), PETA staged a provocative protest at Michael Kors’ flagship store in Manhattan. During the protest, an animal rights activist wearing a giant Michael Kors mask and long black grim reaper coat dragged “bloody” fur coats and “exotic skins” to draw public attention to Kors’ continued use of animal skins.

PETA stages anti-fur protest at Michael Kors’ flagship store in NYC

The activists who participated in the disruption say they plan to continue targeting Michael Kors until he stops designing with real fur.

In recent weeks, animal rights activists in NYC and Toronto have convinced dozens of people wearing Canada Goose coats to unzip the fur trim. Activists attribute their recent success to a growing public awareness about the cruelty inherent in producing Canada Goose and other fur coats.

Activists display fur trims collected during a protest at Paragon Sporting Goods, a Canada Goose retailer in NYC. (photo on right: Nathan Semmel)

During a protest at New York Stock Exchange on the day that Canada Goose went public, TheirTurn captured two of these incidents on camera.

Consumers who have agreed to unzip the fur have told activists that they thought the fur was fake or that they never stopped to think about what – or who – they were wearing until they were educated by the handouts, the recent media coverage and the anti-Canada Goose posters that have been plastered around the cities.

Rob Banks removes the fur trim from a Canada Goose coat in front of the New York Stock Exchange on the day that Canada Goose went public

Canada Goose decorates its coats with the fur of coyotes who are caught in steel leg-hold traps, where the wild dogs can suffer for days before the trappers return to shoot them in the head.  The canines often attempt to chew off their own limbs to escape the traps and return to their babies.

Activists donate the fur trim to rescue groups that use it to make blankets for orphaned animals.

In an effort to call attention to the plight of the coyotes trapped and killed to decorate Canada Goose coats, animal rights activists staged a protest inside of the Canada Goose department at Paragon Sporting Goods in NYC.

Paragon Sports customers watch in disbelief as animal rights activists protest the sale of Canada Goose

Activists protest and distribute anti-fur pamphlets at fur retailer Paragon sports

Workers yank the feathers out of the bodies of geese for clothing and bedding (photo: PETA)

Customers in the New York City vegan restaurant By Chloe wear Canada Goose coats with dog fur trim

Anti-Canada Goose posters have been plastered around New York City