NEWSFUR

The following is a guest blog from Jessica Schlueter who coordinates the Intermix campaign along with her friend Amy Rebecca.

Intermix considers itself to be on the cutting edge of the fashion industry. According to its Facebook page, it focuses on "the best mix of emerging and established designers and the most sought after trends." Because of this, it has embraced and profited from the heartbreaking resurgence of fur, which has regained popularity in the past couple years. Because many fashionistas revere Intermix as a source of inspiration, every piece of fur sold by this company not only creates demand for more animals to be brutally killed for their pelts, but also enforces the growing notion that fur is not only acceptable, but something to be coveted.

My partner Amy Rebecca (founder of Fur Free LA) and I want to put a stop to this. Since the launch of our Intermix: Please Go Fur Free! petition in October, we have hosted and coordinated numerous national protests, launched an online photo campaign, encouraged people to email, tweet, and call Intermix (as well as individuals and companies that support or work with them), and have yet to hear a single reply from Intermix's people. The company's refusal to engage us or cooperate with us in any way can only mean one thing: Intermix knows it has no defense.

The latest message from Canadians? The seal hunt isn't worth it.

A new poll conducted by International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) shows that over two-thirds (68 percent) of Canadians are opposed to using tax dollars to fund the commercial seal hunt. The survey was conducted by Environics Research Group for IFAW, and compiled the information from a random sample of 2,140 Canadian adults, between the dates of April 12-21, 2011.

With the federal election just around the corner, Canadian politicians should pay attention to these poll results. The current Canadian administration set a record-breaking quota for the seal hunt this year, sanctioning the deaths of 400,000 seals.

These deaths were approved despite that fact that the Gulf of St. Lawrence is experiencing the worst ice conditions on record, which has already cost the lives of many harp seal pups. But Canada's current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who The Economist recently called "a dinosaur on climate change," doesn't give a hoot about wildlife populations.

During Easter season, we're bombarded with pictures of adorable bunny rabbits. It's hard to believe that each year, one billion of these gentle long-eared animals are killed for their fur.

So as you plan your Easter outfit, try to make it a rabbit-friendly one. That DKNY pink chiffon dress you had your eye on? Don't buy it. Donna Karan continues to use rabbit fur in her designs, despite numerous campaigns asking her to cut the cruelty towards bunnies.

Easter is meant to be a time of peace and renewal, and so it's the perfect time to reconsider our treatment of the Easter Bunny and his friends. Much needs to change for rabbits, who suffer horrendous cruelty in fur farms. The animals spend their entire lives crammed into tiny cages, cages so small their soft spines can become deformed. They suffer horrific deaths, are gassed, electrocuted, poisoned, or strangled.

Pop singer Ke$ha is no fan of the Canadian seal slaughter. The hard-partying singer recently appeared in a series of PETA advertisements, posing alongside the teasing slogan: “Canada’s Club Scene Sucks.” The ads will be prominently displayed on Ke$ha’s upcoming U.S. tour dates.

Ke$ha is known for her love of fake fur, but the vegetarian starlet is vocal about her opposition to real fur. She called the Canadian annual hunt of baby seals for their pelts “barbaric” and “archaic.”

While I'm surprised that Ke$ha knows what the word "archaic" means, the glitter-encrusted singer might be smarter than her frothy lyrics suggest. She explained her position on the seal slaughter with some eloquence: “Canada gets to be host to harp seals each year during their migration to the ice to give birth which is beautiful and peaceful. But because the babies’ fur is so soft, there are people who club and brutally kill these young animals.”

Ke$ha continued, explaining her hopes to end the slaughter: “My music and my fans are part of a movement of youth taking over the world with positive change. I know they’ll help me and PETA ban the Canadian seal slaughter so the only place you see baby seal fur is in a museum.”

In a major victory for animal lovers, members of the Norwegian Labour Party voted to shut down Norway's fur industry. According to Views and News from Norway, Popular Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg "will be under marching orders from his party members to urge fur farmers into other lines of work."

It may not be easy to get this through the coalition government, since the farmer-friendly Center Party is likely to support fur farmers. But if the Labour Party is successful, over 300 mink and fox farms will close their doors and open their cages.

The anti-fur sentiment has grown strong in Norway in the past few years. In 2009, an animal rights organization known as Network for Animal Freedom broadcast undercover footage filmed at fur farms on local television. Viewers were outraged by what they saw: animals living in filth, animals with open wounds left untreated, sometimes missing eyes or entire limbs.

The world continues to mourn the loss of Knut, Berlin Zoo’s hand-raised polar bear, who died last month. Many Knut fans are now protesting the zoo's plans to stuff the world's most famous polar bear for museum display.

Unfortunately, this taxidermy fate is not unusual for polar bears. Fur Harvesters Auction Inc., one of Canada's largest fur auction houses, says it cannot meet the soaring demand for polar bear hides, which are used for displays in museums and airports or are made into bear skin rugs.

"The supply does not even come close to meeting the demand," said Mark Downey, the auction house's chief executive officer.

Ellen DeGeneres has over one million fans on Facebook, but I'm pretty sure I'm her #1 fan after her latest move of animal activism: the vegan talk show host recently asked her viewers to help end the Canadian commercial seal hunt.

On her show's webpage, DeGeneres writes: “Seal hunting is one of the most atrocious and inhumane acts against animals allowed by any government. Canada is allowing the slaughter of a record number of seals in their 2011 hunting season, which is going on right now. The seals are often younger than 3 months old.”

DeGeneres then links fans to PETA’s website, where donations are accepted to help stop the seal hunt. Close to $45,000 has already been contributed from seal-lovers worldwide.

The Humane Society of the United States has added some all-stars to their animal-loving line-up: twelve contestants from Bravo’s Top Chef All-Stars have joined the Protect Seals boycott of Canadian seafood.

HSUS started the boycott on Canadian seafood in order to put pressure on fishermen to stop the commercial seal slaughter, as many Canadian fishermen hunt seals during the fishing off-season.

The All-Star chefs couldn't have teamed up with the Protect Seals campaign at a more crucial time, as this year's seal hunt has recently begun. The campaign has already garnered celebrity attention, but it's important to have chefs on board to keep Canadian seafood out of restaurants. And if those chefs are celebrity chefs, well, all the better.

Animal lover Pamela Anderson has always been popular in Europe, but lately the blonde bombshell has really earned her title as PETA UK's Person of the Year. The Canadian-born beauty has recently written a letter to her home country in defense of the European Union's 2010 ban on seal products.

Canada's Department of International Trade brought the seal hunt to the World Trade Organization last month, complaining that the EU's ban on the seal trade violated the WTO's rules. Anderson called Canada's challenge of the ban a "huge waste of taxpayer dollars."

Pamela Anderson's letter, written in partnership with PETA, also requested that the hearings on Canada's challenge to the EU's ban on seal products be open to the public. Anderson said that if Canada doesn't have "anything to hide about how seals are bludgeoned and skinned in the commercial slaughter, then there should be no issue with allowing public access to hearings."

In 2004, Donna Karan told New York Magazine: "We are all one. I’m a traveler. I’m an explorer. I live nowhere. I live on my [yoga] mat.” In the same article, Karan said she "can see why people become vegans," and condemned those who use alligator skin to make handbags. Given these past statements, it's unclear how Donna Karan now justifies her use of rabbit fur in her 2011 clothing designs.

These inconsistencies have led PETA to call Karan a "New Age Hypocrite," warning the designer that skinning rabbits brings bad karma. Now PETA has enlisted the help of B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the world's first yoga instructors, to get Karan to give up the fur habit. B.K.S. Iyengar isn't someone Donna Karan can easily ignore; she is an Iyengar yoga devotee.

In a letter, the ninety-two-year-old yoga master asked Donna Karan to stop using "furs, which are violently removed from the living animals, so that those animals which have the right to live, live in peace." Iyengar's letter to Karan continues: "As a yoga practitioner, may I request you, on behalf of myself and my friends from PETA India, to take a stand against using the fur of animals that is removed by the cruelest killing methods."