Victory: The Kooples Bans Fur

For Immediate Release:

22 September 2016

Contact:

Olivia Jordan +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 229; [email protected]

VICTORY: THE KOOPLES BANS FUR

French Retailer Pledges No Fur in Future Collections After PETA Campaign

London – Following PETA’s campaign to end The Kooples’ sale of fur, which included internationally coordinated actions and an appeal from singer Peter Doherty (who once designed a collection for the brand), the French clothing company has announced that it will ban fur from all future collections. The popular fashion label – which has approximately 330 stores worldwide and which banned angora wool in February after hearing from PETA – made the announcement after meeting with PETA France and learning that animals suffer on European fur farms.

“We are extremely concerned by animal suffering and … we’ve made the decision to stop the use of all fur in any future collections”, says The Kooples Executive Director Nicolas Dreyfus. “We had already made the choice to stop the use of angora in all our collections and in all countries, which was thanks to PETA’s courage and wisdom in helping us understand the cruel treatment inflicted on animals of which we were not aware.”

Compassionate people fed up with the brand’s continued support of an industry that skins live animals such as foxes, minks, and raccoons made their feelings known: nearly 60,000 supporters of PETA or its affiliates contacted the retailer. In London, a crowd of protesters – led by two larger-than-life “rabbits” – gathered outside The Kooples’ flagship Carnaby Street store for a protest, while other activists descended on stores in Paris, Amsterdam, and New York.

“Today’s kind shoppers want nothing to do with an industry that confines animals to cramped cages, violently beats them, and tears their skin off”, says PETA’s Yvonne Taylor. “By banning fur from future collections, The Kooples has done the right thing for animals and consumers.”

PETA’s exposé revealed that animals on fur farms spend their lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages before they’re electrocuted, gassed, or poisoned. In the wild, animals caught in steel-jaw traps can suffer for days from blood loss, dehydration, or attacks by predators before being suffocated or bludgeoned to death by trappers.

The Kooples joins other top retailers and designers – including Topshop, Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, and many others – that are 100 per cent fur-free.

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

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