‘Cat Lady’ To Strip To Her Stripes Over Fur

For Immediate Release:
20 February 2003

Contact:
Sean Gifford 020 7357 9229, ext. 226 (office); 0773 457 9092 (mobile)

London – There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) do not like any of them. Wearing nothing but body-painted tabby stripes and a placard reading, ‘Wear Your Own Skin’, PETA’s ‘cat lady’, who just last night disrupted Julien Macdonald’s fashion show by pouncing on the catwalk with a ‘Fur Kills’ banner, tomorrow will crouch in a cage to protest the suffering of cats, dogs and other animals killed for their fur.

Date: Friday, 21 February

Time: 12 noon sharp

Place: Department of Trade and Industry, 1 Victoria St. (near the corner of Victoria and Great Smith streets)

Millions of dogs and cats in Asia are killed annually for their skins, which are exported to Europe and countries around the world. One fur coat requires up to 24 cats to be slaughtered. Killing methods are unimaginably cruel: Cats are strangled or drowned and dogs are restrained by the neck with wire snares, then slashed across the groin. Video footage shows many are skinned while still conscious.

Dog and cat fur is still being imported into the UK labelled as ‘other fur’, meaning fur-coat buyers may purchase dog and cat fur without realising it. PETA are urging the minister of trade, Baroness Symons, to introduce legislation banning the importation of dog and cat fur into the UK. While the US and Italy have already banned such fur imports, and in the UK, 300 MPs have signed an early-day motion in support of the ban, Baroness Symons has instead opted for a voluntary labelling scheme which allows the bloody trade to continue.

While the minister’s foot-dragging is widely condemned by animal protectionists, the ultimate responsibility falls on the buyer. ‘If you buy some fur, you may be responsible for the gruesome deaths of dogs and cats, but if you buy any fur, you are certainly responsible for the suffering of some animals such as foxes and minks’, says PETA ‘cat lady’ Kayla Rae Worden.

Kayla, who flew to London for the demonstration, is no stranger to controversy. She disrupted the Versace fur show in Paris, was arrested last autumn after marching naked against fur in Beijing and recently made headlines around the world after disrupting the Victoria’s Secret fashion show in New York.

For more information about PETA’s Fur Campaign, please visit FurIsDead.com.