Nearly naked anti-fur protesters visit trade show

[Animal 0]

Nearly naked anti-fur protesters visit trade show
Updated Tue. Apr. 29 2008 10:42 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Nearly naked, green-painted anti-fur campaigners converged on a Montreal trade show Tuesday, hoping to convince passers-by that no matter what their thoughts may be on animal cruelty, fur is bad for the environment.

Lucas Solowey, a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and president of the Concordia University Animal Rights Association, was one of about 15 people who protested outside the Fur Council of Canada's annual event in downtown Montreal.

Of those, three were nearly naked, wearing green spray paint and dressed in nothing but underwear and wigs. The stunt was meant to call attention to what PETA sees as the deception of the Fur Council's recent "Fur Is Green" media campaign, which calls fur the "ultimate eco-clothing."

"There's nothing green about fur," said Solowey, who said chemical preservatives are required to condition fur that is going to be used for clothing. "Those toxic chemicals run into our waterways."

The Fur Council's executive vice-president called PETA's angle "misinformation," saying harsh chemicals are more often used to treat leather than fur, which is too delicate to be treated with strong substances.

"Fur dressing is really quite gentle," Alan Herscovici told CTV.ca. "It's mostly treated with alum salts, lanolin, table salts... They're fishing at a red herring."

He called fur a sustainable clothing option, noting the fur trade has been going on since Canada's early days without impacting beaver populations.

PETA's endorsement of fake fur over the real stuff indicates a lack of understanding of conservation, since most fake furs are made with petroleum-based products which are costly to the environment and difficult to break down, Herscovici said.

Solowey has a hard time believing the fur industry's claim to sustainability, noting many Canadian furs come from farmed animals, not from the wild. The manure run-off from such farms is another cause of pollution, he said.

Herscovici said the Canadian industry produces farmed fur over wild fur at a two to one ratio.

"The fur industry is misleading people," said Solowey. "If people... see the cruelty and toxic waste involved they might take a second glance at their actions. Tradition doesn't justify cruelty."

He said his group has filed a complaint with Canada's Competition Bureau over the Fur Is Green campaign. PETA's parallel "Fur Is Dead" site says the Fur Council deliberately misleads consumers into thinking that buying fur helps the environment.

"The fur industry pollutes the environment with highly toxic chemicals, including sulfuric acid, formaldehyde, and ammonia," states the website. "Dressing and dyeing furs is classified as high-polluting by Canada's National Environment Protection Bureau."

When asked his thoughts on the current debate in the European Union on a potential seal pelt ban, Herscovici called the anti-sealing campaign in another example of manipulation of the public by special interest groups.

"A lot of governments in Europe are coalition governments and they have to have something to pay off their left wing or their green wing," he said, noting most countries in the world participate in some kind of wildlife harvesting.

Herscovici, the author of a book titled "Second Nature: The Animal-Rights Controversy," appeared at a news conference in support of the industry Tuesday morning alongside Quebec Industry Minister Raymond Bachand and NWT Sustainable Development Minister Bob McLeod.

"The more we dig into it, the more we come back to nature -- and fur is nature," Bachand told CTV Montreal in an interview.

On Monday, the Newfoundland and Labrador government called on Ottawa to help prevent the EU's proposed ban on seal pelts.