Profits Still Trump bebe’s New Fur-Free Policy, Animal Rights Group Claims

Brisbane, Calif.—Despite their recent announcement that it will go fur-free, women’s retail clothing store bebe still carries rabbit fur on their racks, and will not implement plans to remove it until after the 2007 winter season. The company’s statement followed many months of concerted efforts by animal rights groups, including international animal protection organization In Defense of Animals (IDA). The California-based organization is dismayed that profits still trump policy and is calling for an immediate withdrawal of fur-trimmed products from their stores.

Rabbits bred on fur-farms suffer confined in small wire cages and endure miserable conditions of filth and deprivation, forced to live in the stench of their own waste. Fur farmers kill these gentle animals by breaking their necks or slitting their throats as they hang them upside down.

“bebe has made the right executive decision to go fur-free,” says Elliot M. Katz, DVM, president and founder of IDA, who is disappointed in bebe’s unwillingness to stop selling all fur immediately, even as the company acknowledges the inherent cruelty to animals. Fur-trimmed items are still dead animals, Katz says. “They are wringing every last penny they can get from their present inventory, and that’s inconsistent with taking an ethical, public stance against wearing animals’ fur.”

IDA will urge shoppers to avoid bebe stores—one of the last mall stores that still carry fur—until they are truly free of all fur products.

Visit www.furkills.org for more information on IDA’s anti-fur campaigns.