Fur Free Friday 2005

What is Fur Free Friday?

Every year on the day after Thanksgiving for the last two decades, thousands of people around the U.S. have held demonstrations, marches, vigils and other activities for Fur Free Friday to protest a global multi-billion dollar industry that kills over 40 million animals annually. This national day of action is held on the busiest shopping day of the year, just as autumn changes to winter (when most furs are purchased). Taking action on this day allows activists to reach the greatest number of consumers, including those who may be thinking about buying fur as a gift or for their own use. 

The message of Fur Free Friday is simple: The suffering and deaths of feeling animals is not worth the price of an expensive coat or the fur trim on a jacket collar, so please don't pay for the blood of innocent animals. Commercial fur and fur trim are stolen from animals who are trapped in the wild or confined on fur mills, raised in wire mesh cages and exposed to seasonal temperature extremes. These are the real fashion victims - injected with weed killer, burned by anal or vaginal electrocution, and trapped and clubbed to satisfy the vanity and greed of selfish human beings. 

Fur sales began to slump soon after the earliest official Fur Free Friday demonstration in 1986, which was modeled after the non-violent civil rights-era campaigns and sit-ins. Only this time, the enemy wasn't society's institutionalized racism but humanity's entrenched speciesism. Large numbers of activists now gather in this spirit every year outside department stores selling fur to oppose the excruciating lifelong suffering of minks, foxes, chinchilla and other species killed for fur. 

If there comes a day when fur is no longer sold in the U.S., Fur Free Friday will have had much to do with it. It is one of the most widely recognized and celebrated national days of action in the animal rights movement, and one of the most effective at influencing consumers to boycott an industry engaged in senseless cruelty. Please join IDA and groups across the U.S. as we unite in action for the animals on Fur Free Friday.

What You Can Do:
  1. This Fur Free Friday, join or organize an event in your area to educate people about the cruelty behind fur and fur trim. Every year on this day, thousands of activists gather in front of places where fur is sold to raise people’s awareness and give out information. Visit www.furkills.org/events.shtml to check IDA's calendar for protests being planned around the country. If no event is planned in your area, visit http://www.furkills.org/lit.shtml to request brochures, leaflets, stickers and other fur campaign materials. Then register your event below so we can include it in our calendar. 

  2. Campaign for fur bearing animals every day by handing out cards to fur wearers or placing anti-fur stickers on all your outgoing mail. E-mail antifur@idausa.org with your name and mailing address to request materials. 

  3. Hold a screening of The Witness, Tribe of Heart's documentary about one man's crusade against fur. Invite friends and family and notify the media of your event. Visit www.tribeofheart.org to order a copy on DVD or VHS.

  4. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper on the suffering animals endure for fur. Visit http://www.furkills.org/samplelte.shtml for sample letters.

    Register your Event