Coronation Street 's Kate Ford Says, 'Boycott All Fur'

TV audiences are used to seeing actor Kate Ford as super-bitchy Tracy Barlow in Britain's most popular soap, Coronation Street , but now Kate is going from bunny boiler to bunny hugger in PETA's striking new anti-fur ad, photographed by Karl Grant.

Kate appears in a stunning red satin evening gown, holding a beautiful white rabbit, Stan, protectively to her chest, with her trademark killer look. Her message is simple: "Try telling him it's just a bit of fur trim".

"I play a pretty cold-hearted character in Coronation Street ", says Kate "but I can't think of anything more cruel or cold-hearted than killing animals for their fur.

"After spending some time with this live bunny, it is even more amazing to me that people will kill these sensitive and sweet animals for profit", she adds.

Behind the glamour of PETA's new ad lie the realities of the fur industry. Like other animals "farmed" for their fur, rabbits - who are extremely clean by nature - are kept in tiny, filthy cages, surrounded by their own waste. They spend their entire miserable lives standing on the thin cage wires, never having a chance to dig, jump or play. The methods of slaughter are inhumane, too - they are killed by having their necks broken or having their skulls beaten before being strung up by the legs and having their heads cut off.

Some stores justify the selling of rabbit fur by saying that it is "just a by-product" of the rabbit-meat industry. But the rabbit fur industry demands the pelt of a thicker, older animal than those slaughtered for meat. In fact, the UN reports that "few skins are now retrieved from slaughterhouses," and countries such as France are killing as many as 70 million rabbits a year for fur.

What's more, there is a thriving, hideously cruel dog- and cat-fur industry in Asia, much of which is often falsely labelled as "rabbit fur" before export to Western markets. Without expensive DNA tests, it is virtually impossible to know exactly what kind of animal you are actually wearing if you choose to wear fur.

With so many high-quality alternatives to both rabbit fur and angora, compassionate consumers and animal-friendly fashionistas, like Kate, are sparing bunnies and shunning their skins by instead choosing soft acrylics, brushed cotton and faux fur.

Back to Top