Nov 22, 2007 9:31 am US/Pacific
Anti-Fur Protest Set For Friday In Beverly Hills
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (CBS) ―
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Rodeo Drive will be the site of the annual, day-after-Thanksgiving fur protest in Beverly Hills. (File)
AP
Members of In Defense of Animals will march on Rodeo Drive on Friday in an attempt to urge shoppers not to buy fur in what has become a day-after-Thanksgiving tradition.
The protestors plan on carrying pictures of foxes, beavers, wolves and other fur-bearing animals with the phrase "Thank you for not buying fur" in what has been dubbed as "Fur Free Friday," according to the group's Bill Dyer.
"Holidays are a time for celebration and reverence for life, so we're calling on shoppers to respect all life by not buying fur," Dyer said. "Ripping the skin off an animal's back simply for the sake nf vanity is cruel and unnecessary."
The executive director of the West Hollywood-based Fur Information Council of America said the fur industry is "highly regulated" at the national and international levels, "insuring high standards of animal welfare."
"We do not trade in endangered species," Keith Kaplan said. "In fact, we support and work with societies. We adhere to all the guidelines provided by the fur products labeling law, which provides information on species and country of origin for any product purchased in a fur store, so the consumer can feel quite comfortable and quite confident in their purchase."
Kaplan accused "many of the protesters involved in many of the groups" of never doing "research into the truth in fur."
The protestors plan to show video of what they claim "is the ugly truth about what happens to these animals before people get to wear their fur," an organizer said.
Kaplan said "much of the footage that is released by many of the animal rights groups is either very old or we've found that it is staged."
"We are proud industry, with a proud heritage," Kaplan said. "We have nothing to hide."
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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