Dear Ms. Karan and Donna Karan International,
In today’s progressive marketplace, Donna Karan designs lag behind Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, J. Crew, Ann Taylor, Polo Ralph Lauren,
Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, Todd Oldham, Marc Bouwer, and other popular designers who don’t use fur.
In fact, your reintroduction of old-fashioned rabbit skins is so offensive, I am forced to boycott your lines until all dead animals are
eliminated.
Rabbits factory-farmed for their fur are squeezed inside tiny wire cages that cut into their non-padded paws. Before slaughter at 10-12
weeks (white rabbits) or 8-9 months (Rex rabbits) many perish from dehydration, starvation or self-mutilation.
Killers break necks and bludgeon skulls (smashing live rabbits against walls) before stringing rabbits by their legs to behead them. Fur
is stripped from their bodies in full view of other living rabbits.
I urge Donna Karan International to choose conscientious couture over pain and suffering. Please initiate a permanent fur-free policy.
With virtually no protections for furbearing animals, they’re killed as cheaply as possible. Pelts are often derived via genital electrocution. A
metal conductor is lodged in an animal’s throat and an electric prod inserts in the rectum — so the killer can deliver a 240-volt
blast of electricity. The current is merely a paralyzing agent. The conscious, convulsing animal endures a heart attack for two or more minutes.
Eighty-five percent of fur originates from factory fur farms. Sometimes animals are neck-popped, injected with pesticides, or asphyxiated
with carbon monoxide from unfiltered engine exhaust.
Animals trapped in the wild suffer no less. Those caught in leghold traps may gnaw their teeth to the jawbone or chew off their feet to escape.
Others languish on trap lines for days before trappers return to fatally club, stomp or drown them.
No matter how you market it, fur is synonymous with violence and death. Please notify me about any steps forward to a permanent fur-free
policy.
Thank you,
