Republic of Ireland Rejects Fur Farm Ban

In March, the Republic of Ireland rejected a ban on fur farming proposed by that country’s Green Party.

The Republic of Ireland is home to six mink farms that export about $2.5 million worth of fur annually. Fur farming was banned in Northern Ireland effective January 1, 2003, as part of the United Kingdom’s ban on fur farming. A the time the ban went into effect, there were no operating fur farms in the country.

Republic of Ireland Junior Agriculture Minister John Browne told Ireland On-Line that the government felt that existing regulation of fur farms was sufficient, though it was willing to continue to examine welfare-related issues presented by fur farms,

I am prepared to keep the position under ongoing review in the light of developments.

I would consider introducing a provision in the forthcoming legislation into animal health and welfare which would require the extending of a licensing requirement to all enterprises engaged in farming animals for their fur.

Of course the Greens want complete abolition of the practice, as Green Party leader Trevor Sargent told Ireland On-Line,

Our intention is to end this needless and cruel practice via the Fur Farming (Prohibition) Bill 2004.

When the bill finally came up for a vote in the Dail, Government parties carried the day defeating the proposed ban by a vote of 67 to 50.

A transcript of the debate between pro- and anti-fur farm forces in the Dail can be read here.

Source:

Govt says no to fur farming ban. Ireland On-line, March 22, 2005.

PETA Targets Donatella Versace

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals announced in March that its India chapter would target Donatella Versace with billboards.

The billboards feature pictures of Donatella with the copy, “Fur is worn by beautiful animals and ugly people.”

PETA’s Dan Mathews tells Indian newspaper Mid-Day,

Donatella’s selfish, cruel nature is evident in the photograph, which is in start contrast to the gentleness and beauty of the animals whose skins were stolen for her shows.

Of course, Mathews is one of the uglier animal rights activists around, having in 2000 declared his admiration for the man who murdered Gianni Versace. A profile in Genre magazine that year noted,

When asked who is among the most important men he loves of the century, he replied, “Andrew Cunanan, because he got Versace to stop doing fur.”

Someone’s got a selfish and cruel nature, and it ain’t Donatella Versace.

Source:

PETA targets violence. Hemal Ashar, Mid-Day, March 20, 2005.

Star Jones Takes PETA’s Bait

“The View” resident idiot, Star Jones, took People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ bait earlier this month, threatening to sue the animal rights group over a parody campaign the group is planning.

PETA has been after Jones for awhile now since Jones frequently wears fur. This time around they hired drag queen Flotilla DeBarge to appear in a campaign parodying Jones.

And Jones decided to give PETA exactly what it wants — more publicity and a good fight — by stupidly suing the animal rights group for, of all things, copyright violation.

Which means not only did she threaten to file a lawsuit, but she’s threatened a completely baseless lawsuit. Jones may have some limited rights in her public image, but PETA is on solid legal ground for using a lookalike for a parody. As Richard Johnson noted in a Yahoo! News op-ed,

But the lawyers are insulting Star, because their argument only makes sense if the public could actually mistake DeBarge for her. They seem to be saying their client resembles an overweight, 6-foot-tall drag queen.

Well there may be some validity that, but overall it appears that Newkirk’s finally found someone even dumber than she is to tussle with.

Source:

Star Fears Drag On Her Image. Richard Johnson, Yahoo! Entertainment, March 2, 2005.

PETA Takes Credit for Hitting Anna Wintour With a Pie

According to New York Daily News columnist Ben Widdicombe, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was responsible for an unknown individual throwing a pie at Vogue editor Anna Wintour on March 3.

Widdicombe wrote in his column,

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who quarrel with Wintour’s support for the fur industry, claimed responsibility for the incident.

A rep told me: “Yelling, ‘Fur hag!’ the young woman launched the gooey pudding at Wintour, just prior to the Chanel couture show at Le Carrousel du Louvre, and made a speedy getaway. After the pieing, Anna, who was wearing a fur coat at the time, ran backstage so Karl Lagerfeld could help her clean the tofu goo off of her face.”

Wintour was not hurt by the attack. She was reported to have joked that tofu may be good for the skin.

PETA has had an ongoing war of words — and now apparently pies — with Wintour over Vogue’s “promotion” of fur and its refusal to run PETA’s anti-fur ads.

Sources:

A Pie in the Face for Vogue Editor Anna Wintour As She Enters Chanel Show in Paris. Fashion Week Daily, March 4, 2005.

PETA gets in Anna’s face. The New York Daily News, March 4, 2005.

Stella McCartney: Its Not Dead, Its Vintage

The Daily Telegraph profiled fashion designer and anti-fur activist Stella McCartney in January Ethical Treatment of Animals, but don’t think that stops her from wearing animals skins. The Daily Telegraph’s Sabine Durrant writes,

. . . When she [McCartney] arrives the first thing I notice is her cowboy boots, the color of pale calf, slightly battered. They looks so much like leather it’s uncanny.

‘Yeah, I know,’ she says, and tucks them out of sight. They must be the ones she sells — the veggie shoes that have been such a hit in her shops. I bend to admire them again, to touch them, but she’s tucked her feet so far under her stool I can’t reach them. It’s only then it dawns that something dead may, actually, have walked out of her door.

‘Oh, these are leather,’ I say. ‘No, wait, these are vintage,’ she replies.

I see. Fur is dead, but leather is vintage! Come to think of it, that steak I had the other day was (recent) vintage!

Source:

Stella gets her groove back. Sabine Durrant, The Daily Telegraph, January 25, 2005.