After coming under the Gunn, the Miss Florida USA pageant will no longer award fur coats to its winners. PETA’s 2009 Man of the Year, Tim Gunn, wrote a letter to Grant H. Gravitt Jr., the executive producer of the pageant, explaining that animals killed for their fur are electrocuted, drowned, bludgeoned, or skinned alive and asked him to drop animal skins from the competition. Gravitt apparently agreed that ugly fur has no place in a beauty competition, earning him a thank-you from the Project Runway star.
There is nothing glamorous about cruelty to animals. It’s time for all pageants that still give fur coats as prizes, such as the Miss Maryland pageant, to celebrate the beauty of kindness. Sign PETA’s fur-free pledge and be beautiful in your own skin so that animals can keep theirs.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
