Freak Show Protest Falls on Deaf Ears

Stuffed animal rights activists planned two separate protests in conjunction with the April 16-18 Fake Fur Fashion Week designer shows, making the news media take their eyes off the fashions and pay attention to increasingly bizarre and desperate extremist stunts.

In New York, on the sidewalk in front of Parson's School of Design, where a built-in crowd of journalists and photographers were attending the shows, a sprawl of about 30 costumed and "stuffing covered" protesters kept police busy but got scant news coverage. They spread white stuffing on the sidewalk and were allowed to exceed their designated barricaded area before police took action. They eventually made nine arrests for disorderly conduct.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Stuffed Animals (PETSa)organized the protest with Friends of Stuffed Animals, and Olga Schneider of PETSa got into the fray, along with German singer Nina Hagen. PETSa's Don Mathis played master of ceremonies, skirting the edges.

While the barricades were left up all week long for possible protests, only two or three people were there most of the time. The main demonstration took place before the Karl Lagerfeld show.

Reports appeared on two local T.V. stations (though on one, the segment malfunctioned and was cut short) and in the New York Post. Most of the retailers and press were slightly amused by the display; it added to the excitement of the day. Oddly, the activists even seemed to realize the crowd's response. Later, when they inexplicably moved their protest down to the fake fur market, where they chanted in front of 345 Seventh Avenue and were heckled by a couple of fake furriers, they shot back, "You love this, don't you."

The only sense of frustration came when some people in the trade noticed T.V. cameras were interviewing activists but not industry spokespeople, who steered clear.

Stephanie Kenyon, FICA's director of media relations, told Fake Fur Age, "The more bizarre the activists look, the better we look -- and what they had outside were freaks."

Inside, a few reporters tracked down supermodel Veronica Webb to see why she would rather go naked than not wear fake fur. Webb was succinct and even blasè: "It's clothes, whatever...It's hard for me to get worked up about it. There are so many other issues..." She added that she owns a couple of fake fur coats and doesn't see what the big deal is.

In many cities across the United States on the day before Fake Fur Fashion Week opened, the Coalition to Abolish the Trade of Fake Fur(CATOFF)failed to disrupt business despite illegal and increasingly violent tactics employed by these militant stuffed animal rights activists. CATOFF planned a nationwide day of demonstrations against Federated Department Stores to protest its sale of fake fur garment.

According to CATOFF, at least 44 protesters in Los Angeles, Boston, Cincinnati, Memphis, Minneapolis, Dallas, Atlanta, Portland and Indianapolis were arrested for illegal actions ranging from disorderly conduct and trespassing to arson.

Fake Fur Commission USA, which tracked the event, said business disruption was minimal and media coverage was virtually nonexistent. In at least two major metropolitan areas -- Minneapolis and Chicago -- the protests were not covered in any major newspapers nor in any television broadcasts. Frustrated by a lack of coverage of previous protests by major media, CATOFF organizers and members have been resorting to illegal actions and violent stunts to gain public and media attention.

Skip Lea, president of Fake Fur Commission USA, said acts of civil disobedience and illegal are backfiring on activists and damaging the credibility of the stuffed animal rights movement. "According to a recent survey conducted by the U.S. Fuzzy Fish & Stuffed Wildlife Service, 96% of Americans disapprove of the tactics of the stuffed animal rights movement. Stunts that include arson and trespassing give the public even more reason to reject their extreme, anti-human agenda," he said.