Animal Cruelty for Fur at Burberry

Angela Ahrendts, CEO
Burberry Group PLC
18-22 Haymarket
London SW1 4DQ
United Kingdom

angela.ahrendts@burberry.com, contact@burberry.com

Dear Mrs. Ahrendts and other Employees of Burberry Group,

I was so shocked to learn about Burberry’s continuing use of real fur in its designs. There is absolutely nothing fashionable or elegant about how animals are killed in the fur industry! Animals on so-called fur farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages. Fur farmers use the cheapest and cruelest killing methods available, including suffocation, electrocution, gassing, and poisoning.

In today's marketplace, progressive retailers like J. Crew, Ann Taylor, Polo Ralph Lauren and others no longer feature real fur in their collections. I am surprised a name as sophisticated as Burberry still designs with animal skins. No matter how you market the end product, ALL fur begins with violence and suffering. For example, in the U.S. and other countries, animals killed for fur are not even covered under human slaughter laws. With scant legal/ethical standards to oversee the industry, fur companies employ low-budget kill methods such as "neck-popping" injected pesticides, bludgeoning and beheading, or asphyxiation with carbon monoxide. To preserve hides, many animals are electrocuted through their genitals.

Millions more are mutilated in body-crushing traps. If they don't succumb to exposure or starvation, trappers club, stomp or suffocate animals when they retrieve them. At least one of every four animals gnaw their teeth to the jawbone or chew off their feet to escape the trap's excruciating clench. Chances are some of your collection originated in China, the world's leading supplier of finished fur garments. At fur farms in China's Hebei Province, cruelty investigators videotaped workers carving off skin and fur from alert dogs, foxes and other animals. Some fully skinned animals continued to gasp and blink as their hearts pulsated another five to 10 minutes.

I am very disappointed that Burberry is promoting such outdated cruelty to animals when luxurious cruelty-free materials are readily available. Whether it comes from minks, foxes, raccoons, chinchillas, beavers, rabbits, or lynx, fur looks of course best on its original owners. I refuse to buy anything from Burberry until it removes all fur from its collections. Of course, I cannot patronize your stores until a no-fur policy is instated. Please inform me of any plans to replace real fur with contemporary faux alternatives.

Thank you and sincerely,