PETA Brings Ad Campaign to Life in Madison, Following Exposé of Chinese Fur Farm That Skins Animals Alive

For Immediate Release:
October 12, 2005

Madison, Wis. — PETA’s 30-second TV ads—which make women who wear fur look even more ridiculous than they already do—will come to life in Madison on Thursday, when a PETA activist will don a full-length fur coat and engage in behavior normally associated with those who naturally wear fur—animals. Other activists will wave signs that read, "Only Animals Should Wear Fur!" PETA’s point is that while some may find this behavior disgusting, it is much less disgusting than slaughtering the original fur-owners in order to steal their skins—including the animals shown on videotape being bludgeoned and skinned alive during a recent undercover investigation of fur farms in China:

Re-enacting "The Toilet Drinker," a fur-clad woman on all fours will mimic what some family dogs have been doing for years. The skits remind us that there are some things that only animals should get away with—and wearing fur is one of them.

Three million foxes, raccoons, rabbits, and other animals are raised for fur every year in China—the world’s largest exporter of fur—where animals are not protected by a single law. The undercover footage shows fur farmers swinging raccoon dogs and foxes by their hind legs and smashing their heads into the ground—breaking the animals’ necks or backs but leaving them panting, blinking, and conscious as they are skinned alive. Fur from China ends up in virtually every mall in America. Millions of animals raised on fur farms in other countries are killed every year by poisoning, gassing, anal electrocution, or neck-breaking. In the wild, animals are drowned or bludgeoned to death by trappers.