Skating Around the Truth: Johnny Weir Up To His Same Old (Lying) Tricks
You’re at it again, Johnny Weir—lying, that is. In an online interview by Suzanne Weinstock (February 10, 2011) in Elle magazine online, you not only accuse Friends of Animals of being a “terrorist organization,” you claim we threatened you. Johnny Weir is quoted as saying:
“I had to have the FBI go with me to the Olympics because there was a legitimate price put on my head by somebody associated with Friends for Animals [sic]. I’m used to it. They’re a terrorist group.”
No one from Friends of Animals threatened you. It wasn’t true when we called you out for wearing a fox on your outfit at the 2010 U.S. National Championships, and it certainly isn’t true now. Showing concern for the dead arctic fox you wore does not a terrorist make.
Friends of Animals was hoping you’d have a change of heart about the animals whose miserable lives and deaths you are complicit in. We simply asked you not to wear fur at the Olympics—because you are a public figure and, unfortunately, because some people listen to what you say. That you lost is not our fault.
Wearing fur (and, yes, other animal skins) is deplorable. It’s vapid and vain—vulgar. Choosing to wear something attached to so much pain and suffering is heartless. Misery will never be stylish.
Your wanton love of fur only exposes a cold heart. You say “everyone has the right to choose their way”—but tell that to the beaten and bludgeoned, the anally electrocuted. No one chose to die for your sick fur obsession, Johnny Weir.
Sincerely,
Friends of Animals
Please let Elle know that allowing Johnny Weir to spread lies is slanderous. And let’s not forget about the coyotes, chinchillas, mink, foxes, coyotes (and many more) who become fur garments, and appear in the pages of fashion magazines: They live and die miserably. Fur needs to be an (embarrassing) relic of the past:
Elle Magazine • Letters to the Editor
1271 Avenue of the Americas • New York, NY 10020
E-mail: elleletters@hfmus.com
Open Letter to American Figure Skater Johnny Weir
January 20, 2010
Dear Johnny Weir,
A recent New York Times article discussed your quest for the gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics.
The author mentioned your outfit had a “touch of fox” on the shoulders, and, despite your third place showing at the United States Figure Skating Championships on Sunday, you thought your outfit “looked pretty.”
Please consider that there’s nothing pretty about the fox that suffered and died to trim your outfit. The beautiful fox was likely anally electrocuted, or may have had its head bashed in, only to serve as decoration for someone’s performance.
If you buy fur, no matter what size piece, or which animal it comes from, you’re supporting an industry that has no respect for animals.
You say that you want to bring an “artistic style” to the Olympics, stating that “everyone can do jumps.” But, as past Olympic champions have shown us, style isn’t everything. In addition to skill, you must also have a sense of decorum in order to bring home the gold. And projecting a conscientious view of the planet’s animals is a starting point.
While you may believe that wearing fur is a “personal choice,” kindly know that the animals you wear had no such choice. The fur doesn’t magically slide off these beautiful beings. Their nightmare begins in the cramped cages they spend their lives in, where they are forced to lay in their own feces, and ends with the first cut in their anuses. Or maybe some animals you wear were caught in leghold traps, and struggled in vain to gnaw off their legs? Either way, there is nothing glamorous or pretty about the cruelty they endured. And it can’t be morally justified either.
Friends of Animals urges you, for the sake of humanity, your Olympic ambitions and the hopes of all Americans this winter, to stop wearing the skins of animals. Instead, wow the judges with amazing performances. In the end, nobody cares what a figure skater wears. You will only be judged on your performance and the strength of your character.
Priscilla Feral
President of Friends of Animals
FoA Challenges Figure Skater
Johnny Weir to Stop Wearing Fur
January 22, 2010
Friends of Animals sent an open letter to Olympic hopeful Johnny Weir.
The American skater is on a quest for the gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. During an interview with the New York Times, Weir boasted smugly that he “looked pretty” in his outfit, which visibly showed fur obtained from a fox on his sleeves.
In the letter, FoA President Priscilla Feral bluntly criticized Weir’s love-affair with fur, stating, “Please consider that there’s nothing pretty about the fox that suffered and died to trim your outfit. The beautiful fox was likely anally electrocuted, or may have had its head bashed in, only to serve as decoration for someone’s performance.”
The Olympic optimist not only parades in full length furs, but has been known to taunt his adversaries by sending them hand-drawn caricatures of animals with x’s over their eyes in retaliation.
Friends of Animals is urging Weir to stop wearing fur, not only for the sake of animals, but for his own Olympic ambitions. Critics say his admiration for furs have quickly put him in the hot seat and have even over-shadowed his chances for placement in Vancouver.
“In the end, nobody cares what a figure skater wears. You will only be judged on your performance and the strength of your character,” Added Feral.