Birthday Present for Sophia Loren: PETA U.K. and Stella McCartney Send Star Luxurious Faux Fur

Italian Icon Urged to Swear Off Fur and Choose Compassionate Fashion As She Turns 86

For Immediate Release:
September 21, 2020

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

A special birthday gift is on its way from longtime PETA U.K. supporter Stella McCartney to screen icon Sophia Loren, who turned 86 on Sunday: a luxurious, cruelty-free coat from McCartney’s new collection, made with KOBA—the world’s first bio-based faux fur, created exclusively by ECOPEL.

“The fur trade is far too violent and ugly for someone as beautiful as Sophia Loren,” says PETA U.K. Vice President of International Programs Mimi Bekhechi. “We hope this gorgeous gift will inspire her to join the 90% of Italians who, having seen how foxes and other animals are beaten, electrocuted, gassed, and even skinned alive for their fur, are wholeheartedly rejecting the industry.”

Recent investigations into Italian mink farms have found animals confined to cramped wire cages with no access to grass or water to swim in. Many were severely injured, and some were driven to self-mutilation by the stress of captivity. At the end of their miserable lives, they’re commonly gassed to death.

As well as being inherently cruel, scientists now warn that fur farms could also become reservoirs for future pandemics, as cases of COVID-19 continue to spread rapidly between workers and sick animals on European fur farms. The public health risk has prompted the Dutch parliament to vote to close all remaining mink farms in the country within the year.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.