Well known fashion label The Kooples has dropped angora wool following the public outcry, however it still sells the fur of racoons, foxes and coyotes. Pete Doherty once designed a collection for the major brand and has sent a letter on behalf of PETA to ask the store to sell only fur free garments.
Pete Doherty for PETA
"Not much shocks me anymore, but PETA's undercover video exposé shot on fur farms did - it shook me to the core", writes Doherty. "It's obvious that these animals' entire lives are filled with torture .... And all for fashion? It's total bollocks."
The expose by PETA shows how animals on fur farms live their lives in tiny, dirty wire cages before they are removed and electrocuted, gassed or even poisoned.
The animals are caught from the wool in steel-jaw traps and can bleed out for days, while becoming dehydrated and possibly attacked by predators looking for an easy kill. They are then suffocated or hit repeatedly until they die.
PETA - whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to wear" - has asked The Kooples, using Doherty's words; "show you give a toss about animal suffering by extending the ban on angora ... to all animal fur."
Many top retailers and designers - including Topshop, Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and many more - are 100 per cent fur-free.
You can read Doherty's letter below:
Dear Raphaël, Laurent and Alexandre,
Not much shocks me anymore, but PETA's undercover video exposé shot on fur farms did - it shook me to the core. It's obvious that these animals' entire lives are filled with torture, from the tiny cages in which they're confined to their long painful deaths. And all for fashion? It's total bollocks.
I have to admit that it's not something I had looked into until now, but once you learn that these animals are often bludgeoned, gassed, anally electrocuted and sometimes even skinned alive for the sake of fashion, you realise just how sick this industry is.
You can then imagine how floored I was to learn from PETA that The Kooples, a company I've proudly designed a collection for, is one of the last remaining retailers that still profits from this torture of animals. It was a good decision to ban rabbit fur last month - but why not also stop selling items trimmed with the fur of raccoons, foxes and coyotes?
Please show you give a toss about animal suffering by extending the ban on angora fur to all animal fur.
Sincerely,
Peter Doherty
For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.
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