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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.”

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.

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.

In September, animal rights activists liberated 80 foxes from their small, wire cages at a fur farm in Poland. After, they issued the following statement: “The animals have escaped a cruel death, which inevitably would have awaited them at the hands of the farmer. Take matters into your own hands!”

On fur farms, animals are held captive in small cages, where they go insane from immobility, boredom and the inability to do anything that comes naturally to them.

Life in a wire mesh cage

And, after a life of utter misery, they are gassed, anally electrocuted or skinned alive.

Wild animals captured for fur are caught in steel leg hold traps, medieval torture devices that hold them hostage until they die or are collected by the trapper.

Steel leg hold trap

Given the extreme cruelty to which fur-bearing animals are subjected, it’s no wonder why activists around the world sacrifice their freedom and safety to liberate them and why so many rejoice when an animal trapper gets caught in his own trap:

Please sign the Change.org petition to ban fur farming in the European Union.

Hundreds of readers took the time to post comments on the article “What Should We Say to People Wearing Fur?” This post summarizes the feedback – in case it’s useful, inspiring or, at the very least, interesting.

The suggestions varied widely, but most could be filed under one of two approaches: measured or confrontational. Each approach has its merits, though some snarky one liners like “Bitch” or “Fur hag” probably do less to help the animals than to satisfy us in the moment.

Among the measured suggestions that were shared more than once are the following:

“Thank you for wearing fake fur.” (even if it’s real)

“Fur looks most beautiful on its original owner.”

“Is that fur real? Do you know where it comes from?” (This question opens up the possibility for a dialog.)

The confrontational suggestions were more varied. Following are a couple of standouts:

“Do you know how many innocent animals had to die so you could wear that?”

“How can you stand the cries of the tortured animals?”

“Do you know your coat was made by skinning the animals while they were still alive?”

Khloe Kardashian’s approach to protesting fur

Several readers who may or may not be activists said, “Don’t say anything. It’s none of your business.” One reader wrote, “If the person is older than 70, leave her alone.”

Others, who clearly are activists, suggested a menacing approach: “They should be followed and yelled at so that they feel unsafe wearing the skins of tortured animals.” Another reader suggested action, albeit unrealistic, instead of words: “Tie them down and force them to watch videos of  animals being tortured.”

A few readers expressed discomfort with fake fur alternatives on the grounds that “it still makes the fashion more popular” or “it glamorizes the idea of wearing an animal.”

The “I am an asshole. I wear fur” stickers mentioned in the article received a mixed response. A few readers asked where they could get them. Another reader, however, had a visceral reaction and, ironically, gave the kind of combative response that she herself opposes:

When it comes to fur, passions run high – higher than they do on most other animal rights issues. Perhaps that can be attributed to the fact that fur is so gratuitous. As activists say – or shout – at the protests, “Stop the insanity. No blood for vanity.”