bebe Warned by PETA's Lawyers Over Lies About Real Fur

Consumers Deceived As bebe Supports the Electrocution of Rabbits, Then Tells Customers the Fur Is Fake

For Immediate Release:
January 29, 2013

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

San Francisco -- National retail chain bebe may go from the mall to the courthouse if the company continues to mislead shoppers by falsely assuring them that the real animal fur in its stores is fake. PETA's attorneys have sent a "cease-and-desist" advisory to Steve Birkhold, CEO of San Francisco–based women's apparel retailer bebe, demanding that bebe either stop lying or make the statement true by no longer selling items made with real fur. In the letter, PETA points out that bebe is misleading customers and engaging in false advertising, a violation of both state and federal laws.

"bebe is unethical on two counts: by supporting the hideous fur industry and by lying about it," says PETA Foundation Director of Litigation Martina Bernstein.

Even though bebe currently sells rabbit and chinchilla fur in some of its stores, callers to bebe's customer service line are being told that it doesn't sell fur.

In China—one of the countries from which bebe obtains rabbit fur—workers pull rabbits out of cages by their ears and stun the screaming animals with electrical devices. Rabbits watch as other animals have their throats cut and their heads and paws cut off with knives before the skin is peeled off their bodies. In other countries, animals killed for their fur spend their entire lives in tiny, filthy cages amid their own waste. To kill rabbits, fur farmers break their necks or smash their skulls before stringing them up by their legs and slitting their throats.

For more information,  please visit PETA.org.