Selfridges Targeted By Anti-Fur Forces

Anger Over Claim That Rabbit Fur is a Mere ‘By-product’ of the Meat Trade

For Immediate Release:
11 January 2005

Contact:
Andrew Butler 020 7357 9229, ext. 230
Dawn Carr 020 7357 9229, ext. 224

Manchester – Waving giant placards splashed with graphic images of blood-covered rabbits alongside the caption “Rabbit fur is a by-product … of pain, misery, suffering and death”, PETA protesters will urge shoppers to stay out of Selfridges until the company stops selling clothes and accessories made from rabbit fur. The protesters will hand out leaflets featuring anti-fur quotes from celebrities including P!nk, Pamela Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix, Twiggy and Stella McCartney. Their point is that despite Selfridges’ claim that rabbit fur is a by-product of the meat trade, the Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations report that “few skins are now retrieved from slaughterhouses”. In fact, rabbits bred for their flesh are usually killed at about 12 weeks old – when they still have their infant coats, which are deemed unsuitable by the fur industry – while rabbits killed for their skins are slaughtered at around five months:

Date:   Wednesday, 12 January
Time:   12 noon-2 p.m.
Place:  Selfridges, 1 Exchange Square, Manchester

Millions of rabbits are killed every year for their fur and their flesh. Animals on fur factory farms spend their entire lives confined to tiny, filthy metal cages with no shelter from weather extremes. To kill rabbits, fur farmers break the animals’ necks or smash their skulls before stringing them up by their legs, cutting off their heads and skinning them.

“Selfridges says that it has a strict anti-fur policy because that’s what customers want, but now it is sneaking rabbit fur in through the back door”, says PETA Campaign Coordinator Andrew Butler. “When they learn what rabbits suffer for a bit of fur trim, shoppers will shun Selfridges and other stores selling rabbit fur.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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