For Immediate Release:

September 25, 2006

Contact:
Matt Rice 757-622-7382

Milan, Italy – Holding signs reading, “Burberry: Fur Shame,” three PETA activists took over the runway at the Burberry fashion show in Milan this evening, disrupting the “invitation only” event, which is part of Milan Fashion Week. Attendees—including Vogue editor Anna Wintour, a longtime PETA target because of her fetish for fur—gasped as the protestors leapt from the seated crowd chanting, “Fur is dead.”  The activists were escorted out of the show and released.

Burberry may be best known for its distinctive plaid, but it’s the company’s use of real fur that has compassionate consumers seeing red. PETA representatives have met with Burberry executives and screened a video that shows graphic footage of animals who are suffering on fur farms and in traps. But unlike a growing number of fashion companies that are fur-free, including Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney, Top Shop, Selfridges, Liberty of London, and H&M, Burberry continues to sell real fur.

On fur farms, animals spend their entire lives confined to tiny, filthy cages, where they often go insane before they are killed by poisoning, gassing, anal electrocution, or neck-breaking.

The PETA protest comes at a bad time for the conservative British fashion company. Attempting to reposition itself as a younger, hipper brand, it was recently rebuffed by trendy U.K. Indie band The Rakes, which turned down Burberry’s offer to appear in an ad campaign because of its use of fur.

“Designers who still use fur are heartless and shameless,” says PETA Europe director Poorva Joshipura. “These are the spring/summer collections, but right now there are animals languishing on fur farms who will be gassed, strangled, or anally electrocuted for the Burberry autumn/winter collection.”

PETA has previously taken over the fashion show runways of fur designers Karl Lagerfeld, Oscar de la Renta, Dior, Roberto Cavalli, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Prada, among others.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.