Manny Mashouf, Chairman
bebe stores, inc.
400 Valley Dr.
Brisbane, CA 94005
fax: 415-715-3939; email: MMashouf@bebe.com, askus@bebe.com

Dear Mr. Mashouf,

I am surprised a successful chain like bebe feels it must market fur and fur-trim items to remain competitive. Informed consumers do not want to purchase the byproduct of animal abuse. In fact, 94% of responders to a 1998 Cosmopolitan magazine survey opposed the slaughter of animals for their fur.

Millions of wild animals are mutilated in steel-jaw leghold traps. If they don't succumb to exposure or starvation, they are clubbed, stomped or suffocated when trappers return hours or days later. At least one of every four animals gnaw their teeth to the jawbone or chew off their feet to escape the trap's excruciating clench.

The fur used in many bebe products comes from rabbits confined in dingy, waste-soaked cages. Unlike rabbits in the wild, those raised on fur farms spend their entire lives in tiny wire mesh boxes where many perish from dehydration, starvation or self-mutilation. To preserve their fur, killers break necks and bludgeon skulls before stringing rabbits up by their legs to behead them.

Animals farmed for their fur are not even covered under the Humane Slaughter Act. Many are electrocuted through their genitals. Others are “neck-popped,” injected with pesticides, or asphyxiated with carbon monoxide from unfiltered engine exhaust. No matter how you package the end product, ALL fur is rooted in violence and suffering.

I cannot in good conscious patronize your stores until a no-fur policy is instated. Please keep me informed about any plans to replace all fur with sophisticated faux alternatives.

Thank you,