11/15/07 Murder for a Coat
Animal Friends announces a demo and a performance against the killing animals for fur
Animal Friends invites to a protest demo against the killing of animals for fur, which will take place in the heart of Sarajevo on Thursday, November 15, 2007, starting at 11:00 A.M. from Fra Grga Martic Square, in front of the cathedral.
Wishing to draw public attention to the enormous cruelty and injustice of killing animals for fur clothes, activists of Animal Friends Croatia will march the streets of Sarajevo dragging "blooded" fur coats on chains, showing videos of animals on fur farms and loudly protesting against the inhumanity of fur industry.
These animals are being caught in nature by barbed steel traps, which pierce their paws and bodies, so that they pass hours in agony before the hunters tear their chests of break their necks. The traps also take the lives of numerous dogs, cats, and other animals that get caught "by mistake."
On fur farms, animals live in terrible conditions. They are bred exclusively for their fur. They spend their lives in narrow iron cages, covered with filth, fur balls, and excrements of other animals, forced into cannibalism and left without any veterinary care. When their hour of death comes, they are dragged out of their cages with the help of a metal loops thrown around their necks.
Before their fur is torn off, the animals will have their necks broken, poison injected into their hearts, they will be gassed or killed by electric shocks of 240 V, with one electrode inserted into their mouth and the other into their vagina or anus. Sometimes animals only lose consciousness, but are still alive when they are skinned.
The fur industry causes huge environmental pollution. In order to produce fur coats, 60 times more energy is needed than for making faux fur coats. Furthermore, in the process of processing fur, dangerous chemicals are used, which pollute underground waters irreparably and threaten human health.
A fur coat is not simply a type of clothing. For a single fur coat, one must kill up to: 15 dogs, 20 beavers, 22 foxes, 24 cats, 30 racoons, 34 nutrias, 40 opossums, 200 chinchillas, 240 ermines, or 400 squirrels...
And all that is happening today, when there are so many different types of warm and beautiful clothing! It is certainly unnecessary to wear clothes made of animal fur, knowing that it causes so much suffering and ecological damage. Therefore, the UK, Austria, and Croatia have already banned the breeding of animals for fur.
Animal Friends and many citizens condemn the breeding of animals for fur, as well as promoting, selling, or wearing clothes made of animal fur. We wish to create a society with ethical awareness, whose citizens will know that hunting, breeding, and killing animals is an indispensable element of fur production and that all killing of animals for reasons of fashion and glamour must be condemned and discontinued.