The 21st annual Fur Free Friday is coming up on November 23rd, which means it's time once again for animal advocates to unite and take on the fur industry. As we have done every year since 1985 on the day after Thanksgiving, IDA will hold a large protest in San Francisco's Union Square, a small urban park bounded on each side by a city block lined with stores catering to upscale shoppers. This is also where fur merchants such as Neiman Marcus and Macy's have set up shop.

To impact fur sales, activists have to go where the fur stores are, because it is ultimately consumers who will decide the animals' fate by either buying or boycotting fur products. To reach shoppers, dozens of IDA volunteers carry signs around the commercial hotbed and hand out brochures to passerby during our Fur Free Friday demonstrations. Meanwhile, in the center of it all hangs IDA's huge anti-fur banner behind a display table of literature.

IDA has big plans to help animals this Fur Free Friday, but you don’t need dozens of volunteers to hold an event on November 23rd. If there is a store in your area that sells fur, you and perhaps a few friends can just stand on the sidewalk handing out anti-fur flyers. No matter where you live, we encourage you to take part in this important annual day of action. See a list of events at furkills.org.

But you don't have to wait until Fur Free Friday to help animals skinned for fur: you can start right now. Clothing retailer Land's End recently started selling products made from rabbit fur in their online catalog, including fur-lined boots and hats, fur-trimmed jackets, and other items made from fur. You can take action to help fur-bearing animals by politely letting the company know (at landsend.com) that retailers such as J. Crew, Ann Taylor, and most recently Guess! have all vowed to stop selling fur, and that Land's End should set the same policy. Here are some talking points to consider:

• Rabbit fur is not a byproduct of the rabbit meat industry. Thicker pelts are required for fur products than can be obtained from the young rabbits slaughtered for their flesh. Hundreds of millions of rabbits are killed every year around the world specifically for their fur.
• Many people know the joys of having a rabbit companion: they are affectionate, smart, fastidiously clean, and litter-trainable. On fur farms, they are forced to live in cramped wire cages that are filthy with their own waste, and they never get to play or run on the grass. Farmers kill them either by smashing their skulls in or breaking their necks, then chopping off their heads.
• If you like faux fur, thank Land's End for offering slippers, gloves, and vests made with faux fur, and encourage them to offer more fake fur fashions while cutting out the real fur.

Also learn more about the fur trade at furkills.org.