The city of Los Angeles, the second largest in the country, just declared that selling and manufacturing fur will be illegal. Effective in 2020, the policy sanctioning fur sales was unanimously approved by the city council on Tuesday.
“Millions of these animals are killed in the fur industry every year, and we’re just slowly chipping away at this […] here in the United States, and we won’t stop until every city in the U.S. is completely fur free,” said Christina Sewell, campaign manager at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
The fur-free movement has been gaining steam as of late. Other cities that have already implemented a policy similar to L.A. include San Francisco and West Hollywood. Earlier this month, Burberry and the British Fashion Council announced they were boycotting fur on the runway at London Fashion Week Spring 2019.
Not everyone is pleased with the new policy, however. Owner of Furs by LaFayette Harry Naim complained that his business of 30 years, which is popular for selling “exceptional furs offered at reasonable prices” said that he was enraged by the ban that was decided by “some stupid people.”
“I don’t think this bothers anyone,” he said. “Why do they want to kill the business I’ve built?”
L.A. city council member Paul Koretz also warns that the ban will cause problems in the industry during the phasing-out period, but feels that the industry will eventually pick itself up. “It’s overdue, and we have to do it today, and I think we will set an example for the rest of the country and the rest of the world,” he said.
