Yoga Master Iyengar Asks Designer Donna Karan to Ditch Fur

by Annie Hartnett · 2011-03-29 14:00:00 UTC
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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."

The first yoga practice is meant to be nonviolence, ahimsa in Sanskrit, which means "non-harming." Many yogis extend ahimsa to include animals, adopting a vegetarian diet and eschewing fur. B.K.S. Iyengar believes a vegetarian diet is "a necessity" to one's yoga practice, and even starred in a recent PETA ad to promote the compassionate diet.

Even if she does live on her yoga mat, Donna Karan isn't a very good yogi. By supporting the fur industry, she is definitely causing harm to animals. Rabbits raised on fur factory farms spend their entire lives in tiny wire cages before they are gassed, electrocuted, poisoned, or strangled.

It's time for Donna Karan to practice ahimsa off the yoga mat. Sign our petition to tell Donna Karan to stop using rabbit fur in her designs.

Photo Credit: kaibara

Annie Hartnett is a writer and animal advocate who has worked for several wildlife rehabilitation centers and environmental programs.

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