13 November 2004
Campaigners
from the Manchester area joined forces with activists from around
the country to converge on London to mark the beginning of CAFT's
(Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade www.caft.org.uk)
National Anti Fur Week of Action.
Everyone met at Piccadilly Circus and marched around the city, stopping off
at shops selling fur along the way. The march was vocal from beginning to end
and visually impressive, with banners, placards and people constantly leafleting
passers-by, informing them about the cruelties of the fur trade.
Designers
such as Versace, Gucci and Alexander McQueen had their Saturday's
inconvenienced as the march stopped outside of their high-brow
shops and activists spoke about the designers' involvement with
the barbaric fur trade and encouraged shoppers to boycott these
disgraceful companies until they are fur-free. The crowd was noisy
and chanting anti-fur slogans, making a considerable impact on
these shops and passers-by. Some of the shop workers tried to laugh
off the march's presence, but this was obvious bravado and most
looked entirely uncomfortable. These people think they are untouchable
in their high fashion worlds, but it doesn't matter who they are
or where their shops are located, if someone is exploiting and
killing animals for fashion, then they will be the focus of anti-fur
attention!
The
lively march continued on to other shops selling real fur, including
two fur shops, Hockleys and Noble Furs. It is outrageous that in
this day and age, shops still exist purely making money out of
animal abuse. One security guard came out of Hockleys in an attempt
to hand out injunction papers to anyone standing on the pavement
but was quickly told by police to return indoors; he tried to look
nonchalant standing in the doorway, but only looked exceptionally
ill at ease. Obviously, the owners of the shop couldn't face the
crowd of compassionate people but sent a mere lackey! Hockleys
will no doubt end up in a similar position to Noble Furs which
the march visited soon after: stuck down a seedy side street, this
shop didn't even look open. The outside resembled something out
of a Dickens novel, reinforcing the fact that such a shop has no
place in today's society. The shop's sign outside states: Noble
Furs of Regent Street' but it is over a decade that the shop had
premises on Regent Street, and now has to operate out of some back
street!
The eye-catching protest culminated at Selfridges on Oxford Street, where two of the main entrances were covered, people chanted anti-fur slogans and hundreds of anti-Selfridges leaflets were handed out. There was a lot of public support from passers-by and many people said they would boycott Selfridges until they ceased all involvement with the fur trade.
All in all, the day was a huge success, kicking the anti-fur week of action off to a flying start!!