Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
Last week, PETA gave out 100 fur coats to the only people who have any excuse to wear them: the homeless. This giveaway took place at the office of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless in a city where frigid temperatures combine with one of the worst poverty rates in the country to make winters truly a matter of life and death.
The coats that PETA distributed at the event were all donated by erstwhile fur-wearers who, once they found out that animals on fur farms are often bludgeoned or genitally electrocuted, couldn't stand to have carcasses in their closets. The coats are marked so that they can't be resold, and even though the animals' lives can't be returned, at least the coats may help save others' lives.
Anyone who has a coat moldering away in a closet and is too ashamed to wear it in public can give the item as a tax-deductable donation to PETA. Rest assured that we'll put it to good use through giveaways to the homeless, as bedding for animals in wildlife rehabilitation centers, or as a prop in one of our famous street-theater anti-fur demos.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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