Fur-Free Friday 2001 information. right-of-way issue two years in a row.
Fur-Free Friday 2000 was a demonstration against the Fur Vault. The Fur Vault is located
on Route 33 - just north of Grandview Ave. It is in a business district and there are no
sidewalks. We arrived with about a dozen protestors and quickly took positions at the edge
of the road.
The manager came out and told us we were on private property and had to leave. Cars drove by and
gave us a good positive response. Soon the cars became police cruisers and the Fur Vault parking lot
was filled with three cruisers. We were told that because this area is zoned as commercial and there
were no sidewalks we were trespassing. Unbelievable that there really are areas were a protest
is not allowed. After a long debate with police officers it was decided we would leave and begin
an investigation.
Our investigation concerning a "right of way" in that area continues. To date we are not finding any data supporting our right to protest. Unbelievable.
POET has staged numerous protests throughout the years at fur stores and fur-fashion shows. We have appeared on TV news shows and radio panels to reveal the atrocities committed in the trapping and ranching of furbearers for pelts. And 1999 was no different:
Latest Fashion Stops Traffic Outside City Center Mall
Wearing full-length furs and hiding their faces under paper bags that spell out "SHAME" women protest the killing of animals by the fur industry outside a mall in which Lazarus, one of many Federated department stores that sell furs, conducts business. Members of PETA, Mercy for Animals, and Protect Our Earth's Treasures (POET) will join the brown-baggers to confront those braving the busiest shopping day of the year. Riding up an escalator inside City Center the protesters hide their heads in shame while shoppers look on.
They also visited the fur salon at Lazarus and were glad to see an EMPTY sales counter. Guess shoppers had heard that PETA's investigation into fur farms in Illinois, Indiana, and California found foxes and chinchillas being killed by anal and genital electrocution. Exposed broken bones, upper respiratory infections, and cancerous tumors were among the wounds and diseases that animals on the farms endured veterinary care.
Another investigation at a fur farm in Maryland revealed minks that were being killed with injections of weed-killer. And because fur farmers care only about preserving the quality of the pelt, they also routinely gas, strangle, and break the necks of minks and other animals in order to kill them for their fur.
"A paper bag and earplugs are the best accessories for fur-wearers these days," says PETA's Kim Krier.
Our 1998 event was held at the City Center (High & Rich) and was centered around the theme of thanking the millions of people who do not buy, wear, or design with fur and that I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur
There isn't an American who doesn't know about the horrors of trapping. (And "THANK U," California, for banning fur trapping and the steel jaw trap this November.) But what about the so-called ranched-raised furs? The reality of fur farms is that animals with a keen sense of smell and territory are confined year-round to crowded, putrid-smelling cages that offer them little protection from the elements. Animals that would seek shelter in the wild must endure excessive heat in summer and exposure to rain and sleet in winter. The humane slaughter act does not apply to animals on fur farms so they are often killed in grisly ways (e.g. anal electrocution) that cause panic and pain, but preserve the pelt.
"THANK U" to the dozens of designers and couturier shops that do not use fur. Among the top are: Giorgio Armani, Geoffrey Beene, Bill Blass, Carolina Herrere, Tommy Hilfiger, Betsey Johnson, Donna Karan, Anne Klein, Calvin Klein, Oleg Cassini, Chado, Perry Ellis, Escada, Hermes, Ralph Lauren, Manolo, Stella McCartney, Claude Montana, Moschino, Thierry Mugler, Todd Oldham, Prada, Ellen Tracy, Donatella Versace, and Diane von Furstenberg.
More than a dozen POET members showed up to hand out flyers and thank Columbus shoppers for not buying fur. Photo's will be posted soon.
Thanks to POET members, this ad was seen on billboards at rotating locations around Columbus, from Dec through February.
Mink on a fur ranch
For further information about going fur-free visit CAFT or PETA's anti-fur site at www.FurIsDead.com for more information.
PoetWill@sbcglobal.net
Revised -- Nov. 25, 2001