New York City, New York — We confronted it 1969, the year Life headlined its photographs, “A bloody business in Canada causes an uproar all over.”

This Bloody Business is Still Going On. Canadian seal hunters have just killed about 80% of their 2004 quota of 350,000 seal pups, thus completing this season’s main seal kill. They plan to start up again in full force next spring. Will Prada continue to support this?

The hunt has adopted some “improvements” to silence critics: “Under new guidelines,” explains BBC News, “most seals are meant to be shot and not clubbed to death in a bid to make the killing more humane.” [1]

Humane killing is a corrupt concept. Whether they raise clubs, guns, or any other weapon against a seal, it’s wrong and it must stop.

Is Seal Fur “Back”? Last season’s hunt resulted in the export of over 60,000 raw seal skins, nearly all to Norway, Denmark, and China. Birger Christensen of Copenhagen promotes such labels as Prada and Dolce $ Gabbana, with seal skin coats starting around $2,000 USD. Both companies used harp seal skin for the first time in their men’s collection in 2001, with products including knapsacks, neckties, wallets, and glasses cases.

Activists Are Back. On Saturday, 01 May 2004, Friends of Animals, Caring Activists Against Fur and supporters will gather from noon to 2 pm at Prada to ask the public to reject all fur products, including those marketed by Prada. The New York Times recently stated that “no designer exerts more influence on the rest of fashion than Ms. Prada.” [2]

In addition to supporting our physical presence at Prada, please voice your protest to:

Pamela Wallin,
Consulate General of Canada

1251 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020-1175
Telephone: 212-596-1628
Fax: 212-596-1793

Katherine Ross,
V.P. of Communications Prada

610 W. 52nd St.
New York, NY 10019
Telephone: 212-307-9300.

Footnotes

  1. BBC News, “Canada completes main seal cull” (14 Apr. 2004).
  2. Cathy Horyn, The New York Times, “In Milan, Elvis Is Royalty and Prada Is Queen” (1 Mar. 2004).