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KIM BASINGER TO TOP DESIGNER WILLIAM TANG: CRUEL FUR IS OUT OF STYLE

Oscar Winner Urges Designer to Go Fur-Free and Be a Leader in Fashion and Compassion

 

For Immediate Release:

24 September 2009

 

Hong Kong -- Actor Kim Basinger has sent a letter on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia to leading Hong Kong designer William Tang urging him to pledge not to use fur -- including fur trim -- in his collections. Basinger's letter is accompanied by a PETA DVD that documents the widespread misery suffered by animals used in the fur industry. Basinger has starred in the films 8 Mile, Batman and 9 1/2 Weeks and won an Academy Award for her role in LA Confidential. She will return to movie screens this year in the critically acclaimed film The Informers. A copy of the video can be seen on PETAAsiaPacific.com.

 

"I have avoided wearing real fur for many years, and this DVD will show you why", writes Basinger. "PETA's heartrending investigations have documented that animals, including dogs and cats, are bludgeoned, hanged, bled to death, strangled with wire nooses and skinned alive. Workers have been caught beating raccoon dogs and foxes with metal rods and leaving them to convulse on the ground. Some animals are injured but still completely conscious as they are skinned, and they kick and writhe as their skin is ripped from their bodies."

 

Basinger continues, "Members of PETA's staff have visited many fur farms and markets around the world. During their visits to fur farms in China -- which is now the world's largest fur producer -- they never found anything that could even remotely be considered humane". Although everyone who buys fur contributes to this cruelty, she reminds William Tang that "as China's leading fashion designer, you in particular are able to set an example for others and establish a more compassionate trend away from fur".

 

Animals trapped for their fur often suffer excruciating pain for days before trappers stamp on their chests or their break their necks. On fur farms, animals spend their entire lives confined to tiny, filthy cages, where they suffer physical and psychological distress before they are poisoned, gassed or anally or genitally electrocuted or have their necks broken. Many top designers -- including Qi Gang, Stella McCartney, Betsey Johnson, Anne Klein, Vivienne Westwood, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Bouwer, Chloe, Perry Ellis and Todd Oldham -- already refuse to work with fur.

 

A copy of Kim Basinger's letter to William Tang is available upon request.

 

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