Madonna & the curse of chinchilla: What she should know about that coat

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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2062487.ece

 

Madonna & the curse of chinchilla: What she should know about that coat

 

When she stepped outside to face the paparazzi

in London last week, the singer might have known

she was walking into a storm of protest about her

£35,000 chinchilla coat. But could she have known

the suffering that went into keeping her warm? We

think she should be told, says Jonathan Owen

Published: 10 December 2006

 

Stepping out in London's Mayfair last week,

Madonna had no reason to know she was about to

walk into a new scandal. Still reeling from the

row over her adoption of a baby boy from Africa,

the 48-year-old, who started her career as the

self-styled Material Girl of pop, was pictured

smiling and happy as she left a restaurant with

her husband, film producer Guy Ritchie.

 

But trouble was lurking. Pictures of her in a

£35,000 chinchilla fur coat were flashed to

newspapers and magazines around the world,

provoking a storm of protest. Now animal

campaigners are calling for a boycott of her

music.

 

The coat - and thousands like it - represents the

end product of a macabre trade. More than 40

animals were killed to make the latest addition

to Madonna's wardrobe, but hundreds of thousands

are bred on factory-style farms, then killed by

strangulation or electrocution, campaigners claim.

 

" Madonna is showing herself up to be shallow and

selfish and lacking in all compassion which,

particularly in this season of goodwill, is

regrettable, " said Mark Glover from Respect for

Animals. " The message she's sending out to her

fans is contemptible and people should stop

buying her albums until she stops wearing fur. "

 

Anita Singh of People for the Ethical Treatment

of Animals (Peta) said: " It is ironic that just

weeks after struggling to prove she has a heart,

adopting a child from Malawi, she comes out in

support of one of the most violent industries on

the planet. This is an industry responsible for

bludgeoning, strangling, gassing and

electrocuting small, defenceless animals for the

sake of fashion.

 

" It is unfortunate for the millions of

defenceless animals trapped on fur farms that

have to suffer the horrific consequences for her

vanity and that of others like her. "

 

Chinchillas are shy, intelligent animals that can

live for up to 15 years in the wild and are fast

becoming one of Britain's best-loved pets. Fur

farming has been banned in Britain since 2003,

after heavy anti-fur campaigns in the Nineties,

but chinchilla furs are still imported.

 

Mr Glover added: " The hypocrisy is perverse that,

while the means of production is illegal, people

are still able to buy and sell fur. "

 

Photographs from an investigation by Peta depict

the cruelty. Investigators got into a chinchilla

farm in America (a major exporter) and saw babies

taken from their mothers and put into " growing "

rooms, with hundreds of chinchillas in small

cages on top of each other.

 

Campaigners say many die from poor diets and

neglect before they can be killed for their fur,

and that animals often survive electrocution and

are still alive when spread-eagled and skinned.

Neck-breaking, described as " cervical

dislocation " by furriers, and electrocution are

the favoured killing methods. But a spokesman for

US-based Empress Chinchilla Breeders Cooperative

claimed: " Our members take better care of their

chinchillas than they probably do their families.

This is one pampered and cared-for animal. In the

summer, they are kept in air-conditioned barns

with fans for fresh air. In the winter, the barns

are heated. "

 

In Croatia, undercover investigator Jean Hubert,

of the French animal welfare group One Voice, was

forced to watch as a chinchilla took almost two

minutes to die. " I saw a farmer electrocute a

chinchilla in front of me by wiring it to a

domestic power socket, " he said. " It was awful.

The animal kept twitching and as he was skinning

it he kept prodding it to check it was dead. The

animals are skinned immediately afterwards, and

there will always be a proportion skinned while

still alive. "

 

The fur of the giant rodents, native to South

America, is considered the softest in the world

and is 30 times finer than human hair. The demand

for their fur almost wiped them out and they are

now endangered in the wild.

 

When the anti-fur movement was at its height, in

the late Eighties and early Nineties, Madonna

wore anti-fur T-shirts in public. But her

interest soon waned and in 2001 she was pictured

in a £1,000 fox fur hat. A year later, she was

seen in a coat that campaigners claimed was made

from the pelts of unborn lambs. Ironically, this

latest scandal comes only days after Madonna

announced that she will be designing clothes for

H & M, a high street chain that has a policy of not

using fur.

 

The star's long-time publicist, Barbara Charone,

declined to comment but a friend, the vegetarian

fashion designer Stella McCartney, said: " There's

nothing fashionable about a dead animal that has

been cruelly killed just because some people

think it looks cool to wear. "

 

Sales of fur clothing are up 30 per cent on two

years ago, with fur products worth £40m imported

every year in a market worth an estimated £500m

in the UK. Figures from HM Customs and Revenue

show that approximately 1,000 tons of fur are

imported annually. The global market for fur is

almost £7bn.

 

The furore over Kate Moss wearing fur shows no

sign of fading. Campaigners report tens of

thousands of hits on a website attacking the

latest advertising campaign that she has fronted

for Burberry. From tomorrow, an activist dressed

as a knight with a " Death for Sale " banner will

stand outside the flagship store in Regent

Street, London. Burberry has distanced itself

from Moss, saying: " Burberry has never contracted

Kate, or any other model, to be the 'face' of

Burberry. Kate, like other models, works for

Burberry on specific contracts. "

 

The fur industry is fighting back, citing record

sales figures and accusing animal rights

campaigners of picking on poor examples of fur

farms, claiming " the fur trade has standards of

animal husbandry as high and in many cases higher

than most " .

 

Frank Zilberkweit, vice chairman of the British

Fur Traders Association, said: " If you go around

the world you'll find bad practice, but it

doesn't mean the whole industry is tainted. The

problem was that our products were incorrectly

packaged for years, but we've reinvented fur. It

is fashionable and modern and the age of our

clientele is going down. Now we have lots of

ladies in their twenties coming in. "

 

" Eco-fur " is the latest tactic being used to

bring fur back into the mainstream. It is being

promoted by the company Soulfurs that recently

began importing possum fur from New Zealand,

where millions of animals are culled annually.

Interior designers such as Nicky Haslam are

already using its possum fur. A spokesman for the

company said: " This is a beautiful, luxury fur

product that is also eco-friendly. Just like any

other animal-sourced product, fur can be a great

material as long as it is sourced ethically from

a sustainable source. "

 

Possums are an official pest in New Zealand,

where tens of millions have rampaged through much

of the natural vegetation. They are subject to an

ongoing eradication programme.

 

Animal campaigners have been swift to condemn

this. Anita Singh of Peta said: " Possum are

poisoned, shot and cruelly trapped in steel-jaw

leghold traps, a device so cruel it has been

banned in the UK. Furs are about as eco-friendly

as dumping oil in the sea. This is a poor excuse

for ripping fur from animals' backs for profit. "

 

Robyn Kippenberger, the national chief executive

of the RSPCA in New Zealand, warned: " Unless

manufacturers can guarantee the provenance of

their fur and skins, in that they have been

procured by humane methods, we do not support the

killing of possums for their fur. We believe the

industry is blurring the issue by relying on the

possum 'pest' status to condone inhumane

practices when other more humane methods are

readily available to traders. "

 

Dan Lonergan, from trendy furniture shop Gothum

in Notting Hill, London, which sells possum

throws at £1,500 each, is unrepentant. " Most

people are going to find it acceptable, " he said.

" It is not inhumane or environmentally incorrect;

it is putting something to good use that's being

killed anyway. "

 

Imports of fake fur dropped from £3m in 2002 to

£1m in 2006. Last year, 88,000kg of mink worth

£16m came into the UK.

 

The retail world remains divided. Topshop and

Marks & Spencer will not sell fur. But Harrods is

selling fur again, as is the high street shop

Joseph.

 

Chrissie Hynde, the latest celebrity to join the

campaign against cruelly produced fur, said: " Why

would you pay someone to torture an animal?

That's the bottom line, that's what it comes down

to. People cannot pretend they don't know where

fur comes from. "

 

Supermodel Challenge: 10 questions for Kate Moss

 

Last week, we challenged Kate Moss to speak

against cruelly harvested fur, as the face of

fur-promoting luxury brands and as the model most

likely to reverse its increasing popularity.

Here, animal welfare campaigners, experts and

fellow fashionistas ask her to stand beside

designer Stella McCartney, the singer Chrissie

Hynde, and General Peter Davies CB, director

general of the World Society for the Protection

of Animals, who all back the 'IoS' campaign.

 

1. 'There's nothing fashionable about a dead

animal that has been cruelly killed just because

some people think it looks cool to wear.' Do you

agree?

 

Stella McCartney, designer

 

2. 'You have joined Topshop, which has an

admirable policy against the sale of fur. Will

you be supporting this policy by personal

example?'

 

Major General Peter Davies CB, director general,

World Society for the Protection of Animals

 

3. 'How do you explain that you're OK with

sending a message to your fans that cruelty to

animals is acceptable?'

 

Anita Singh, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

 

4. 'How do you feel about others copying you by

wearing fur and in turn fuelling the brutal and

unnecessary trade?'

 

Jackie Ballard, director general, RSPCA

 

5. 'How do you sleep at night, propping up a

morally bankrupt and cruel industry?'

 

Mark Glover, director, Respect for Animals

 

6. 'Where's the fashion and where's the fun in wearing a dead animal?'

 

Wendy Turner-Webster, actress

 

7. 'Would you consider wearing fur that has come from cats or dogs?'

 

Struan Stevenson, MEP

 

8. 'Do you know whether the fur you're wearing is

from an endangered species or not?'

 

Chris Loades, Fauna & Flora International

 

9. 'Why would you buy something where you knew something was tortured?'

 

Chrissie Hynde, singer

 

10. 'If this really is an issue that people are

passionate about then it is up to them to make a

stand against the industry and not buy fur in any

shape or form.' Do you agree?

 

Lady Heather Mills-McCartney

 

Fur Campaign: What we are demanding

 

1. An end to the use of fur from animals which

are cruelly treated, for example the two million

cats and dogs raised in poor conditions for their

fur in China or seals that are inhumanely

slaughtered.

 

2. A halt to the practice of farming animals

taken from the wild, such as foxes and mink,

which are denied the basic freedoms they need and

suffer distress when killed.

 

3. We want a universal system of labelling for

fur, which clearly states its type and origin.

 

 

--

Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS IS: <ANPEOPLE

Website: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/ with

French and Spanish language subsections.