Breaking News: Michael Kors Bans Fur
After meeting with PETA U.S. officials, Michael Kors announced that it’s going fur-free! The new policy will cover both the luxury fashion company and its recently acquired Jimmy Choo line. And while the phase-out won’t be final until the end of 2018, until then, no fur pieces will be shown at the company’s runway shows—and most importantly, no more animals will be killed for their fur for its clothing lines.
The ban follows many years of demonstrations at Michael Kors fashion shows and boutiques by PETA U.S. and other animal rights groups.
After meeting with PETA US officials today, Michael Kors has announced they are dropping fur! ? pic.twitter.com/imOQcNYPXN
— PETA Asia (@PETAAsia) December 15, 2017
The World Is Changing
This announcement comes just two months after another iconic fashion brand, Gucci, said that it would be going fur-free starting in 2018. And in recent years, other companies, such as Giorgio Armani, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and the world’s three largest clothing retailers—Gap Inc., H&M, and Inditex (which owns Zara)—have all banned fur.
A new China News Service report reveals that the global demand for animal skins has fallen so far since 2013 that China—the world’s largest supplier of fur and leather—is stockpiling masses of skins in storage refrigerators and that processing plants are operating with skeleton crews.
The crash in skins sales follows PETA exposés of Chinese leather manufacturers that export goods made from dogs who were beaten to death with wooden poles as well as fur farms on which animals were skinned alive. And our eyewitness investigation of Chinese angora farms documented that workers held down rabbits and ripped out their fur as they screamed in pain. After seeing this footage, 120 major fashion brands banned angora from their collections.
Why Go Fur-Free?
Not only is fur out of style, animals also have to suffer and die for it. Eighty-five percent of fur comes from those who are raised and killed on fur farms in China—the world’s top fur exporter. Every single fur farm that PETA Asia has visited in China has been beyond cruel. Investigators have witnessed and documented that foxes are electrocuted, dogs are bludgeoned to death, raccoon dogs are skinned alive, and rabbits are forced to live inside cramped, filthy cages before finally being strung up and skinned—sometimes while still alive.
What You Can Do
Always speak out against cruelty! Companies pay attention to consumers’ opinions and make decisions based on what people are buying. Never purchase anything made with fur or angora.
Together, we can get more and more companies to ditch fur and spare animals’ lives, just as Michael Kors did:
