SKINNED ALIVE
I don’t usually try to bring up anything that might be seen as ‘controversial’ or ‘activist’ related here in this blog. I generally keep to rather benign subject matters that don’t make people squeamish or make them uneasy. I’m certainly no activist– I’m more of a follower than anything. I don’t like to rock the boat much or try to shove my views and opinions down other peoples’ throats. But I was made aware of something recently that simply froze my blood. About a week or so ago, I was flipping through the cable channels and stopped at a show called THE BIG IDEA WITH DONNY DEUTCH. It’s an interview show, and he often talks with people that are pretty interesting to me, so if I catch it on, I’ll stop and watch a few minutes to see if he’s talking with someone or about something I might want to see. This particular night, he was talking with Heather Mills McCartney, the wife of the former BEATLE Paul McCartney. The woman in and of herself didn’t interest me much– but what she was saying caught my attention IMMEDIATELY — and absolutely horrified me. McCartney was talking about trying to contact Jennifer Lopez about her use of fur in her clothing line. Lopez has a fashion line called SWEETFACE– and apparently she’s one of the biggest users of fur from animals such as fox, rabbit and mink in her clothing designs. The thing that utterly shocked and disgusted me was when McCartney started talking about how many of these poor animals are SKINNED ALIVE for their fur. I had heard of the practice of shoving electric rods up the rectums of these poor animals who are RAISED SPECIFICALLY FOR THEIR FUR– and shocked to death before being skinned…. but I’d never heard of them being skinned while still alive. I’ve since seen videos of it, having searched the web about it…. so I know it to be true. I’m stunned that there are people who are supposed to be modern, enlightened people still find it cool and fashionable to wear the fur of dead animals. With the many natural and synthetic fibers that we now have at our disposal, it seems like we’ve moved beyond being cavemen who need to wear fur to stay warm in the winter. And the idea of wearing fur as a ‘status symbol’ has always puzzled me…. it just doesn’t make sense.
But the problem goes beyond just individual clothing designers. It’s a systemic endeavor. McCartney also spoke of the way big fashion magazines such as VOGUE will contact hot, young, up-and-coming clothing designers and tell them how much they love their designs and how much they’d love to do a big spread in their magazine(s) about them…… if only they’d work some fur into some of the designs. And so it’s the fashion industry ITSELF at it’s highest levels of promotion that are encouraging the continued use of fur with these ‘promotional bribes’. It’s these heights of ‘fashion power’ that are responsible for the continued cruel, horrifyingly painful death of so MANY small animals– simply for their fur. I visited the VOGUE offices as part a senior class trip when I was in college (I majored in fashion illustration in college)– and let me tell you, these folks, from what I saw, are smug, superior, and consider themselves better than most other people. And yet, they encourage the bludgeoning and skinning alive of small animals so that one can wear their fur to look ‘cool’. It boggles my mind.
I know that there are many people who consider PETA as an organization made up of ‘kooks and nuts’– and there very well may be some of those people in that group…. but they do good work, if you ask me. If you’ve got the stomach and the nerve for it and want to enlighten yourself about this horrible practice, you can find out information and see videos of the horror by going HERE. It’s a portion of their sight devoted to this subject matter. But be warned, it’s gruesome and heartbreaking. So if you don’t think you can handle it, don’t watch.
I know I’ll never forget it now that I’ve seen it.
This is Entry 152.
Mike