PETA And Human Relief Group Give Fur Coats To South Africans In Need

For Immediate Release:
6 August 2008

Contact:
Sam Glover 020 7357 9229, ext 229; [email protected]
Hannes Horne (Let’s Help Africa contact) +27 (0)82 497 2372

Port Elizabeth, South Africa – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Europe is donating more than 100 fur, leather and wool coats and other items to Port Elizabeth, South Africa-based Let’s Help Africa, a charity which will distribute the donations to farmers and herd boys in the neighbouring mountains of Lesotho, where wintertime temperatures can reach minus 20ºC. PETA collected the coats from reformed fur-wearers who gave away their coats after viewing sickening exposés of animals caught in steel-jaw traps and driven insane in tiny cages on fur farms.

With public sentiment massively against fur-wearing, furs have been pouring in to PETA. Its affiliates have begun giving them away to human charities and wildlife rehabilitation centres in order to benefit people and animals in dire straits.

PETA also uses the donated furs as well as leather and wool items in library displays, anti-fur fashion shows, street theatre and other educational events aimed at convincing consumers that animals should never be fashion victims.

PETA US has distributed coats at shelters across North America and has shipped fur items to refugees in Afghanistan and children in Iraq, many of whom face cold winters without electricity or heating materials.

Animals trapped for their fur suffer excruciating pain before they are bludgeoned or stamped to death by trappers. Animals raised on fur farms go insane from being confined to tiny, filthy cages in all weather extremes before they are electrocuted, poisoned, gassed or have their necks broken. An undercover investigation in China – now the world’s leading fur exporter – revealed that animals, including cats and dogs, are often skinned alive.

“We can’t bring back the animals who were killed for these fur coats”, says PETA founder Ingrid E Newkirk, “but we can use them to bring warmth and comfort to deeply impoverished people in South Africa.”

PETA US is making a similar donation to Virginia-based Human Relief Organization, which will distribute the garments through its partner charity, Igbo Common Causes, to the Igbo people in Nigeria.

Anyone interested in making a fur donation to PETA should call +44 (0)207 357 9229. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.