Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Your Shopping May Now Resume



Let's all congratulate Zappos for listening to their customers and adopting a policy to no longer sell fur products.

According to the PETA article -

Back in August, we wrote to the company about this, urging it to adopt a fur-free policy. At the time, the company said that it would look into the issue to gauge people's thoughts on it. So, to help speed that process up, we launched an online marketing campaign, getting members of the public to write to Zappos.com's CEO and urge him to send the pelts packing—and more than 11,000 of you did! The campaign became totally viral and social networking played a huge part—many people posted tweets on Twitter, passed around our petition on Facebook, and much more.

I mean, seriously, is this the first campaign in history ever to be won by tweeting and the slick use of other online tools? It's pretty exciting if you ask me—and also pretty novel! We are paving the way of the future, my friends.

Well, it seems that Zappos.com got the message that people hate fur, because yesterday, the company officially adopted a permanent policy never to sell any products containing the fur of an animal!

Thank you SO much, all you fantastic online activists, for helping—and thank you, Zappos.com, for making the kind decision to forgo fur now and in the future. This will help spare countless minks, rabbits, foxes, and other animals all the
horrors of fur farming and trapping, such as being electrocuted, bludgeoned, and skinned alive.


Read the full article here.

All of us shoppers can now get back to give so many of our dollars to one of the best retailers around!

Thank you Zappos!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you know if this includes shearling? I'm not sure how it's removed from a lamb, but all Ugg boots have it... makes me wonder if they'd discontinue selling the company, or if it's removed in a humane way (like just shaved off)?

Poochie said...

Ashe

I think it will include shearling which is basically the wool still attached to the skin (the leather) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shearling

The worst element of this industry is "mulesing" -

In Australia, the most commonly raised sheep are Merinos, specifically bred to have wrinkly skin, which means more wool per animal. This unnatural overload of wool causes many sheep to collapse and even die of heat exhaustion during hot months, and the wrinkles collect urine and moisture. Attracted to the moisture, flies lay eggs in the folds of skin, and the hatched maggots can eat the sheep alive. To prevent this so-called "flystrike," Australian ranchers perform a barbaric operation-called "mulesing"-where they force live sheep onto their backs, restrain their legs between metal bars, and, without any painkillers whatsoever, slice chunks of flesh from around their tail area. This is done to cause smooth, scarred skin that can't harbor fly eggs. Ironically, the exposed, bloody wounds themselves often get flystrike before they heal.

http://www.savethesheep.com/animals.asp

So not only are Uggs ugly but not very humane either. And with great faux options available, I'm sure there will be something to keep you feeties warm!

Luv
Poochie

WendyB said...

Thank God cow skin is still okay, or they'd have nothing to sell, would they? *rolling eyes*

Poochie said...

Wendy

I think the ultimate goal might be to change the leather industry as well, but shearling and fur are such easy changes to make. There are great alternatives and it is an easy switch.

Zappos has a great amount of vegan friendly shoes, so I don't think the goal is to put them out of business or anything.

I have never really bought or been interested in any fur/shearling products so it seems very unnecessary. Why not phase it out?

Luv
Poochie