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Fur Flies as Loco Furrier Attacks Protesters – Feb.9.2002 News on the National Anti-Fur Day Toronto Protest by Gary Morton 
A Few Digital Photos:
Animal supporters hit the bricks today for national anti-fur actions in Toronto, Hamilton and elsewhere. Caged protested fur cruelty in Hamilton and in Toronto a demonstration and walk thru the fur district was held by people from Freedom for Animals, Ark II, Animal Alliance, anticruelty.ca and Action Volunteers for Animals. The demonstration at the Bay in Toronto drew about 50 people and featured leafleting, picketing with graphic signs, banners, props of blood-marred fur coats, a cage and street speaking thru a bullhorn. Dave Marshall, one of the organizers, brought a screen and played anti-fur videos to the public on the street. Neither police nor the media showed at this colorful Bay demonstration, though it had been promoted. The media no show was due to bias in favour of fur industry advertising dollars, while the police weren’t needed at all at the peaceful demonstration. In engaging the public on animal cruelty issues the Bay demonstration was a success, but problems arose later when a smaller contingent of mostly women did a walk thru the fur district. Tanjah of Ark II led this walk which involved picketing local fur stores and putting up posters. PETA already has the area covered with I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur art and ARK II has a new anti-Fur ad on a bus shelter. The walk worked as a peaceful affair that turned ugly on arrival at Furs by Nickolas near Queen and Spadina. It is a store that has been doing a lot of advertising, which may be one reason for its hostile response to picketers. Store manager Nick Papanagnostoy responded to the sight of protesters at his window by blowing his stack. He rushed out the door in hysterical fashion shouting rapid-fire obscenities. As his anger increased, he for some unknown reason charged a protester named Helen and assaulted her, injuring her left arm as he threw her against a wooden sign and to the pavement Nick was followed onto the street by his wife and she nearly had a heart attack as he continued with his hysterics. Moments later police were called and within a few minutes a small army of police appeared at the store. Investigating officers refused to lay charges of any sort, claiming that all witnesses were biased, being either employees of the store or with the protesters. In the end the walk continued to two other locations then peacefully dispersed. Info on the Cruelty of the Fur Industry see
UPCOMING FUR DEMOS AT THE BAY
-------- Autumn Fur Protests- Oct.20.2001 Fur Photos: - I'm Not a Coat - Fur is Murder - Stop the Bloody Fur Trade Autumn colors are spinning in the gusts, inspiring Freedom for Animals and friends as they continue with a series of protests against the Halloween ghouls of the fur industry. The second demo happened today at the Bay and a small group showed to leaflet, picket, do handouts, chalk the sidewalk and talk to the public via the horn. There is some variety here as a few people regularly show and get complemented by others sprinkling in from the animal rights movement. Some people couldn't make it today due to animal emergencies, others from Hamilton did show. Downtown Toronto, believe it or not, is without humane society animal services … due to corrupt assholes on city council and the humane society board of directors. Council should immediately fund the animal rescues that are working outside of the humane society. The Bay's historical background is as a trapping company. 3.5 million fur-bearing animals are killed each year by trappers in the US. Another 2.7 million animals are raised on cruel factory fur farms. This is a case where corporations and consumer society are saying that an end product justifies any means of creating it – no matter how cruel. Trapping wasn't bad enough for them so they had to go a step further with factory fur torture farms where animals are deprived and killed by gassing, suffocation or electrocution thru the anus. If we can't shut them down altogether, we can at least continue to get the message out and stigmatize the use of fur. More people educated on the issue means more people seeing that fur coat as something wretched … and you don't want to look wretched do you? Write a letter to the Bay: by email:
by mail:
or by telephone: 416-861-4904 Contact: Candice, email lucy518@hotmail.com
Today Anti-Fur protesters began a
series of Fall protests against The Hudson Bay Company. Suzanne, Susan,
Dave, Tom, Candice and Candace and others petitioned and held signs with
various graphics and anti-Fur messages.
I suppose another message would be that if we could be at peace with animals we might be at peace with ourselves. The use of animal fur is not necessary in an age of cheap fake fur, yet in spite of that we still have cruel trapping going on and factory fur farming that is grotesquely inhumane. If we bombed fur bearing animals we'd likely kill far fewer of them and their lives would be better than on a factory farm. Our war on animals is meaner than our wars on civilians. I guess we aren't that peace loving when it comes to nature. Contact "Freedom
for Animals" <free_animals@hotmail.com>
Freedom for Animals held a spirited demo tonight at the IT Nightclub on Church Street. You could call it a trendy event on all sides. Except for the darker side of fur, which is an incredibly cruel factory farming industry that tortures and chews up animals by the millions. This demo was a near instant thing, called because a press release came out from The Fur Council of Canada announcing a special runway show at IT Nightclub for the opening day of Fashion Week. The presentation was titled FUR IS IT. The scene out front was one of media, protesters, models, bouncers and designers. City TV arrived first for the media, followed by the Sun. FUR IS IT had two models right on the street. The female model wore a pink fur, while a male model wore a full-length hooded fur created through the deaths of about 70 animals. On the protest side Suzanne had her megaphone announcing that Fur is Dead, as opposed to Fur is It. Or perhaps You're an IT if you think wearing fur is cool. Our front line was a small gang of guys and gals holding graphic signs of tortured animals, Dave handing out flyers, and I was also there, picketing while moving about the street on roller blades. Apparently Freedom for Animals called this demo so fast that the police never got of wind of it. But a few burly well-dressed bouncers were out making sure we didn't get inside. And down a ways from them was a guy who looked like a secret agent, who watched us through the whole deal. Throughout the demo dozens of designers and pricey people arrived by taxi, and we got in their faces a good bit. (Shame – get your mad cow coats inside – foot-in-mouth designers.) Few of them wanted to look at us. Most of them seemed surprised. Perhaps some of the humour in this is that the bouncers didn't know we were coming. They were hired to protect the fur. Yet the Fur Council says this new designer craze for fur has become a strong street trend. And let me add that in the Church Street area at night you will need three bouncers and a secret agent with you if you plan on wearing expensive furs on the street. That's because there's another street trend called muggers and thieves. The new sale and design strategy is supposed to alter the view of furs as glamour items and have them seen as casual street wear. This will increase sales and allow them to rev up the engines at the torture farms and churn out more dead animal bodies. These new fur fashions are said to have street attitude and they are further defined as Urban Chic. So if you want to look like road kill with an attitude, street fur is IT. There have always been people who think you're nuts if you protest on fur issues. A yuppie screamed stuff to that effect at us, and one young man told our flyer guy that it has always been the way it is or that fur is sort of our heritage. But that's not true at all. Over the last quarter century factory farming for meat and fur has changed things. We've never in history been crueler to animals than we are right now. Of course the human race does come from a background of cruelty. Once we killed each other with axes, yet we don't say it's our heritage and do that now in this city. At least not a lot. Another concern was that kids might see the graphic signs. But I think kids should see them and maybe a few films about factory farming too so they'll know what they're eating. A bouncer hit us with the you-don't-care-about-people line. And one demonstrator said that with six billion people destroying the planet he cares more about animals. But as the bouncer turned away I said that I care. I care about people, too. It's the same folks that don't care about animals that also don't care about people, so you have to care about both to be more than half human. And of course there was the old line that the fur industry can't be stopped ... maybe it can't … at least not quickly … but when the fur industry is trying to brainwash people into thinking Fur is IT, someone has to be out there telling the public that Fur is Cruelty. Later we walked away. No one got arrested. The bouncers went inside, but the secret agent is still lurking in the dark down there in East Toronto. Fur Issues - See - http://www.furisdead.com/ Join Freedom for Animals this Saturday
March 24 for the Garden Brothers Circus Protest at the SkyDome 1.30 to
3 pm. 277 Front St W. at John St.
Bay Fur Protest - Sat.Feb.17.2001 The Freedom for Animals group picketed and petitioned against fur at the Bay today. The Bay was selected for the protest because of its historical background as a trapping company. Here is some info on fur and cruelty to animals in the trade. - Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to tiny, filthy cages, constantly pacing back and forth from stress and boredom. - Some fur animals are killed by anal or vaginal electrocution. Animals killed by electrocution experience the intense pain of a heart attack while still alive. A fur farmer in Maryland killed minks by injecting them with insecticide, causing them to convulse for up to 10 minutes until death. Other killing methods include gassing and suffocation. Trappers usually strangle, beat, or stomp them to death. Some animals are only stunned and may be skinned alive. - Animals can languish in traps for days. Up to 1 out of every 4 trapped animals escapes by chewing off his or her own feet, only to die later from blood loss, fever, gangrene, or predation. - Every year, thousands of dogs, cats, raptors, and other so-called "trash" animals (including endangered species like the bald eagle) are crippled or killed by traps. - Approximately 3.5 million fur-bearing animals--raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, lynxes, opossums, beavers, otters, and others--are killed each year for their fur by trappers in the U.S. Another 2.7 million animals are raised on fur "farms." More info see - People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals
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