Spanish News: Naked on the streets of Madrid to fight the use of fur and leather

SUPPORTERS of the Spanish organisation for the defence of animal rights, AnimaNaturalis arrived in Madrid yesterday (Sunday) to protest about the use of fur in the fashion industry.

Up to 100 participants stripped naked, covered themselves in realistic artificial blood and lay on the pavements on top of each other, to imitate the bodies of lifeless animals once their skin or fur has been removed.

“More and more modern countries are banning fur farms, but our country is avoiding even discussing the issue. It is time to bring Spanish legislation into line with that of other countries in Europe,” said Jaime Posada, coordinator of AnimaNaturalis in Madrid.

“Wearing animal skins is not only inefficient and anachronistic, but intensely cruel to animals,” he added.

Mink, ferrets, foxes, rabbits, seals, otters, cows, chinchillas, and in China even dogs and cats, are part of the large group of animals that are killed to turn their skins into clothing or fashion accessories.

Annually more than 32 million animals are killed in the European Community alone for their fur. Since 2007, countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands have been banning fur farms and increasing their regulations on animal protection. At the beginning of February 2019, Los Angeles became the most important city in the world to completely ban the marketing of animal skins.

Many major fashion houses have ceased the use of fur and animal skins in their collections and from 2020 Prada will be joining other companies such as Versace, Chanel, Armani, Calvin Klein as well as Spanish designer Adolfo Dominguez in a fur free environment.