Written by Jeff Mackey
Wildly popular actor, singer, and writer Annie Yi unveiled her dramatic new anti-fur ad for PETA Asia-Pacific in Beijing this week.
Annie—whose video exposé of the cruelty behind fur has already had more than 200,000 views(!)—is the first Chinese celebrity to tell the public, "I'd rather go naked than wear fur."
Written by PETA
Don't eat so much Tofurky that you sleep through Fur-Free Friday! This special day for animals falls on the busiest shopping day of the year, so it's the perfect opportunity to remind people that the fur in stores comes from living, breathing animals who were cruelly confined and killed. Every year, compassionate people around the world join together on the day after Thanksgiving to educate holiday shoppers about why fur belongs on animals, not our shopping lists.
Most fur comes from China, where there are no penalties for abusing animals on fur farms and animals are raised in unbearably cramped and squalid cages. When it's time to slaughter the animals, workers yank them out of their cages, slam them to the ground, bludgeon them, and then rip the skin from their bodies—often while they're still alive. The workers then kill the animals with the cheapest and cruelest killing methods available, including suffocation, electrocution, gas, and poison.
So what are you waiting for? There is probably a Fur-Free Friday event happening near you—check PETA's website, Facebook, or Meetup.com to find an event in your area.
How do you plan to get active for animals this Fur-Free Friday?
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
The following is a guest post from PETA Prime's Steve Martindale.
Cats, dogs, raccoon dogs, rabbits, and other animals are skinned alive in China for their fur. This fur is exported to consumers in the U.S. and abroad and often dyed to look like the fur of other animals. It's sometimes even deliberately mislabeled as synthetic! More than half the fur garments sold in the U.S. are imported from China, where more than 2 million cats and hundreds of thousands of dogs each year suffer through a miserable life and an excruciatingly painful death as victims of the fur trade. While other sources of fur are unconscionably cruel as well, few do as much as the slaughter of dogs and cats to shake consumers out of complacency.
The cultural and economic inertia driving the Chinese fur trade is daunting—but with your help, we can slow down this juggernaut through dedicated efforts to educate consumers about the true price of fur. We do see glimmers of hope, and you and I can take action right now in many ways. Our new Web site is helping to raise awareness about the cruelty involved in the bloody fur industry.
Eva Mendes' performance in Bad Lieutenant has Hollywood talking. And today, with Fur-Free Friday fast approaching, the talk of tinsel-town debuted PETA's new fur exposé.
Eva says, "I didn't always know how animals were killed for their fur, and I even wore fur once myself." But then the compassionate (and smoldering-hot) actor learned that millions of animals are killed every year in the cruel fur industry. "I swore that I'd never wear it again," she says. Now, in PETA's new exposé (and just in time for the holiday shopping season), Eva is urging viewers to go for a look that kills without killing animals—by forgoing fur in favor of glamorous alternatives.
Why should you go-go-faux? Dogs, cats, foxes, minks, rabbits, and other animals often suffer the pain of having their skin ripped from their bodies while they are conscious and able to feel every agonizing minute. The only way to bring an end to the suffering is to follow Eva's lead and never wear any fur.
Written by Logan Scherer
Academy Award–winning actor and animal advocate extraordinaire Kim Basinger has stepped up, yet again, to speak up for animals who are skinned alive for their fur.
Kim's classic anti-fur ad was one of the first in PETA's "Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign, and the issue remains vitally important to her. Today she sent a letter to leading Chinese designer Luo Zheng reminding her that there's nothing fashionable about using the skins of dead animals in her designs. Kim writes:
As you may know, this is an issue that is very dear to my heart. I have avoided wearing real fur for many years …. PETA's heartrending investigations have documented that animals, including dogs and cats, are bludgeoned, hanged, bled to death, strangled with wire nooses, and skinned alive. Workers have been caught beating raccoons, dogs and foxes with metal rods and leaving them to convulse on the ground. Some animals are injured but still completely conscious as they are skinned, and they kick and writhe as their skin is ripped from their bodies.
As you may know, this is an issue that is very dear to my heart. I have avoided wearing real fur for many years ….
PETA's heartrending investigations have documented that animals, including dogs and cats, are bludgeoned, hanged, bled to death, strangled with wire nooses, and skinned alive. Workers have been caught beating raccoons, dogs and foxes with metal rods and leaving them to convulse on the ground. Some animals are injured but still completely conscious as they are skinned, and they kick and writhe as their skin is ripped from their bodies.
As China's leading designer, Zheng could have a huge influence on the fashion world by joining compassionate, world-class designers such as Qi Gang, Stella McCartney, Betsey Johnson, Vivienne Westwood, and Todd Oldham who have already refused to use fur.
Take a cue from Kim, and tell another behind-the-times designer that fur is cruel and outdated.
Written by Heather Drennan
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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