Will Cork Follow Sister City’s Lead and Ban Fur Sales?

For Immediate Release:
8 May 2018

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

WILL CORK FOLLOW SISTER CITY’S LEAD AND BAN FUR SALES?
PETA Asks City to Join San Francisco in Going Fur-Free

Cork – The city of San Francisco officially banned the sale of fur in March – and because Cork is its sister city, PETA sent a letter this morning asking Cork Lord Mayor Tony Fitzgerald to follow its compassionate example.

In the letter, PETA notes that 50 million minks, foxes, chinchillas, and even hamsters are killed for their fur every year. The vast majority are raised in tiny cages on fur farms, where they face neglect, starvation, and dehydration and where the constant stress of confinement causes many to go insane, leading to self-mutilation and cannibalism. To keep the pelts intact, fur farmers may gas animals to death, electrically shock them, poison them, or break their necks.

“Since so many people are turning their backs on fur, PETA is calling on Cork to take a step forward and ban its sale,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “By going fur-free, the city would join San Francisco in sparing huge numbers of animals extreme suffering and an agonising death on fur farms around the world.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – notes that fur-industry cruelty isn’t limited to fur farms: raccoons, coyotes, and other animals are caught in the wild in steel traps that mutilate their feet and legs, and some try to chew through their own limbs in their desperate attempts to escape. When trappers arrive, they stamp on or shoot the animals or bludgeon them to death. The fur industry also wreaks havoc on the environment, as the harsh chemicals used to keep skins from decomposing end up in waterways, along with phosphorous from the living animals’ waste.

For all these reasons, numerous top fashion brands – including Gucci, Versace, Donna Karan, and Maison Margiela – have recently gone fur-free.

PETA’s letter to Lord Mayor Tony Fitzgerald is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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