From Paris to New York to Dubai to Tokyo, animal rights advocates were angry and frustrated on Thursday after pop sensation Rihanna strolled down Paris Fashion Week with a white fur stole in toe. The Barbados-born music star should have known better, said one Swedish activist, but overall, the sentiment globally was one of condemnation, especially after a string of videos from animal rights groups has shown the horrors of fur. Wearing fur, however, is nothing new for the 22-year-old, who has already spawned a Facebook group titled “10,000 people to get Rihanna to stop wearing fur.” This time, she wore a low-cut patterned dress plus ruby heels paired with blue socks, but the stole was the item that anti-fur proponents took alarm from. Michel Routin, a young aspiring French couture designer, told Bikya Masr via telephone that the move was “not even looked at positively from among fashion experts here in Paris, so why she wore it is bewildering. A lot of us young designers are looking for conscious stars who don't do this sort of thing and Rihanna is not on our lists.” The young pop sensation was attending a show by Miu Mu, one Prada's top young designers. A number of animal rights activists from across the globe shouted out condemnation over the attire. Sally Shahin, a Dubai-based blogger, called the stole “distasteful and ignorant of the realities of how that piece is actually made. She should have a better sense of what she is doing to the animals when she decides to wear their fur.” In London, Peter Jones, who recently attended an anti-fur demonstration in the city's East End, called Rihanna “a child” who “has no sense of moral aptitude when dressing herself. How is the world supposed to sit back and allow animals to be stripped of their skin while still being alive. Is this what we are going to do for fashion?” According to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), some 85 percent of the fur industry's skins come from animals on factory farms. “These facilities can house thousands of animals, and, as with other factory farms, they are designed to maximize profits—with little regard for the environment or animals' well-being,” the leading animal rights group has stated on their website. Reliable statistics, confirmed by PETA and Mercy for Animals Organization, said that more than 31 million animals are slaughtered for their fur annually, the majority being mink. Often, the animals remain aware and alive while the process of stripping their skin off takes place. Bjorn Jurgen, a Swedish activist who has led local campaigns in Stockholm to educate the population, says that it is difficult to counter the fact that many people see stars of Rihanna's stature wearing the skins of animals. “We try extremely hard to develop a strategy that gets awareness out there to people. Often many of those people we talk with believe the animal simply dies and the fur is then taken; they don't understand the realities that these animals must go through,” he said. As Rihanna struts the Paris Fashion Week stage, activists continue to point to the horrors that comes with fur. The question now, as campaigns continue and videos go viral online showing animals being depraved of any semblance of humanity, is will the world wake up and end this horrific practice? BM
