Fur flies as PETA takes exception to fashion exhibit

Published on Wednesday 23 August 2006 01:05

A HIGH-profile New York exhibition about British fashion has come under fire from an animal rights group for using a Burberry coat trimmed with fox fur.

The campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has written to the Metropolitan Museum of Art demanding that it remove the gabardine trench coat from the popular Anglomania show.

Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's president, said: "Displaying fur garments - especially fur items that serve to advertise goods that visitors can purchase just a few blocks from the museum - sends the unacceptable message that it's somehow acceptable to torture and kill animals for mere 'fashion'."

In a reply to the PETA demand to remove the item, Andrew Bolton, a curator at the museum, wrote that the exhibit featuring the coat had been partly designed to "reveal the moral discourse surrounding blood sports and fur fashions".

The label accompanying the item explains that such fashions reveal "the grisly reality of fox-hunting", Mr Bolton said.

The museum said the coat would not be removed from the exhibition, which is due to come to an end on 4 September.

Burberry is the sponsor of the Anglomania show, which opened in May to widespread acclaim following a star-studded launch party attended by the likes of the actress Sienna Miller and the model Kate Moss.

Ms Newkirk said: "Fox fur is not obtained from riders in pink coats, of course, so the Burberry part of the display seems to be a glaringly misplaced advertisement for a garment that can be purchased just up the street at the Burberry store."