House of Fraser Under Fire After Video Shows Russian Fur Horrors
For Immediate Release:
3 December 2019
Contact:
Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]
HOUSE OF FRASER UNDER FIRE AFTER VIDEO SHOWS RUSSIAN FUR HORRORS
PETA Asia Investigation Finds Chinchillas Electrocuted, Rabbits’ Heads Hacked Off, and Animals Cowering in Fear
London – With the Christmas shopping season underway, PETA is releasing its first-ever exposé of the Russian fur trade. Video footage shot by PETA Asia eyewitnesses reveals a worker bashing rabbits with a metal pipe and hacking off their heads while they were still conscious, electrocuting chinchillas and breaking their necks, and subjecting animals to other horrors on five farms. A worker at one facility said that the farm sells skins to Kopenhagen Fur, which describes itself as the world’s largest fur auction house. Another facility investigated by PETA Asia supplied furs to auction house Saga Furs. For decades, PETA and its affiliates have exposed cruelty on fur farms all over the world, and this latest exposé shows that nothing has changed.
In response, PETA is calling on House of Fraser, to reinstate it’s decade-long no fur policy after the company, shamefully, started selling fur garments again. Already, nearly 20,000 supporters have joined PETA in contacting the company to remand the company go fur-free. In doing so, the department chain would join Selfridges, Topshop, Armani, Versace, Burberry, Gucci, and hundreds of other top designers and retailers in banning fur.
“Shoppers should keep firmly in mind that behind every fur coat, collar, or cuff is a filthy wire cage, a shrieking animal, and a blood-soaked abattoir floor,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA is urging House of Fraser to give some peace to these tormented animals by once again joining the majority of the fashion world in going fur-free.”
Some rabbits were still alive and twitching when a worker decapitated them, splashing the floor with their blood and tossing their heads into baskets full of others’ heads – all while other rabbits watched, trembling in terror. One worker failed to place the electrodes on a chinchilla correctly, and the animal shrieked, twitched, and convulsed for over a minute before finally becoming still. Then, the worker broke the chinchilla’s neck.
Animals were kept in dirty, wire-mesh cages. Some cages were exposed to the elements, while others were enclosed in dark rooms. Minks and sables paced incessantly – a sign of psychological distress – while a fox with nowhere to hide cowered in fear. One chinchilla appeared to be blind but was still forced to breed. And a worker explained that if the animals relieve themselves in the “wrong” part of the cage, they’re killed. “Any animal must be clean,” he said. “If you produce not clean skin, you’re losing a lot of price.”
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, which is the human-supremacist worldview that other animals are nothing more than commodities to use and kill at will.
Photos and broadcast-quality video footage are available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.
#