Cheers to California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom who signed legislation this weekend outlawing the sale and manufacture of new fur clothing and accessories,making it the first state in the country to enact a fur ban. New York City, what are you waiting for?

“The fur industry is in free fall. This is the time you think about moral arguments rather than weighing everything according to economics,” said Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals. “Now New York City needs to get its head out of the sand and pass its own fur sales ban, which was introduced in March. Animal suffering for the sake of expensive clothing only affordable to one percent of the population is over.”

Friends of Animals has been pressing NYC to be a leader in ending animal exploitation, publicly calling on the city to ban fur in the summer of 2018. Our efforts culminated with City Council Speaker Corey Johnson announcing legislation to ban the sale of fur products in March.

While we wish California’s fur sales ban would take effect immediately, it doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2023, giving retailers time to sell off their inventories. San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to ban the sale of fur last year, a move that drove at least one retailer to leave the state, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Berkeley, Los Angeles and West Hollywood have enacted similar bans.

In September, California also passed legislation that Newsom signed making it illegal to trap animals or sell their fur, another law the state was the first in the nation to approve.

Kudos to Newsom for also signing a new law prohibiting the trophy hunting of bobcats in the state as well as legislation that prohibits the use of wild animals such as bears, tigers, elephants and monkeys in circuses.

For more on FoA’s efforts to ban fur sales in NYC, click here.