Friends of Animals held lively, peaceful fur protests in both NYC and Westport CT, on Saturday, December 9th, aimed at telling holiday shoppers to be true to the season’s joyous spirit by avoiding any garments with fur.
In midtown Manhattan, dozens of anti-fur advocates gathered in front of the holiday window displays at Macy’s Department Store-home to NYC’s largest fur vault--dressed in Santa hats, ringing bells, holding festively decorated signs and banners, and giving out hundreds of informative flyers, all while singing anti-fur themed carols to the throngs of people shopping and admiring the window displays, and garnering an immense amount of attention. Passersby responded wonderfully by cheering the activists on, taking the fur literature and giving lots of smiles. A pedicab driver wanted to support our message so much that he insisted on displaying one of our signs on his bike for the rest of the day while he traveled through the city. We had wonderful feedback from shoppers and many people wearing fur took our literature and responded positively to our joyous message that the holidays are a time for compassion for all.
In Westport CT, a simultaneous peaceful vigil occurred in front of Albe’s Furs with 20 advocates-resulting in wonderful press coverage including interviews on Cablevisions Channel 12—repeated on-air hourly in Connecticut -- and coverage and photos for Westport Minuteman newspaper, and Westport NOW.
Friends of Animals was joined by local group Animal Rights Front in getting out their positive anti-fur message to shoppers and passerby who saw their festive signs and took flyers.
