By Chung Min-uck
More than 70 animal rights activists chanted slogans and staged anti-fur demonstrations several hours before the opening of the glitzy Fendi show at the “Floating Island” on the Han River, Thursday.
They had their own version of a catwalk in front of a throng of photo-journalists with a woman standing over a white carpet dropping fake blood from her body one drop at a time.
They also tore apart a mock animal, to show how cruelly animals are treated in the process of making fur garments.
No matter how stimulating it all was, it only seemed to attract the media’s attention to the extent that they were waiting for the real performance to begin.
You could hear the activists of all ages shouting slogans like “No bloody fur” at the attendants for the show while holding up their picket signs. The noise became much louder when they came across some elegant models with fur on their dresses.
Yet, ordinary people who were there to see the show didn’t seem to be concerned.
“I agree with what they are saying. It’s a good thing. But, it’s not that just Fendi is selling fur products. I think it was just wrong timing (of the fashion show),” said Jamey Kim, 38.
Kim added that all the fuss about the show is because it was the inaugural event for the Floating Island. “After a year or so it might have been OK.”
The Fendi show was staged after the Seoul Metropolitan Government retracted its earlier demand for the fashion house to remove fur items from the event.
On the day of the fashion show, the protest groups were targeting the participants while shouting their slogans, but the organizers just walked through the crowd surrounded by bodyguards.
“We really care about animals. We came here to fight against them,” said Emily Park, a junior member of Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE).
It was not clear who they were referring to when they said “them,” whether it was Fendi or Seoul City officials, or both. But they were still screaming for their love of animals.
Clearly something was wrong, not the motivation perhaps but the way the rights groups were putting across their messages.
Bill Watson, an assistant professor at Purdue University, was standing next to the throng of bodyguards. He was wearing a Korea Animal Rights Advocates but was standing there by himself with a picket sign.
He said that he came across the news of the Fendi fashion show and decided to participate in the rally while visiting Korea.
Watson, also an activist for animal protection in the U.S, claimed that what’s important is to let the people know how Fendi’s fur clothing is produced and how to act against such firms.
He used the concept of “hidden cost” and “responsible consumer” to explain how the animal rights movements should be held.
“Look at the factory farming system. Manufacturers produce mass amounts of meat so that people can eat. Animals suffer from it and people suffer from it too. People start to have health problems like cancer, heart diseases and being overweight. People forget about the hidden costs,” said Watson.
He said that factory farming is similar to the case of fur garments since they both hurt the food supply chain. If people are aware of it, they will change their practices as it is in their own interest.
“People cannot tell the difference between synthetic fur and animal fur. Then why make it? President Obama passed a law this year saying that clothing have to be labeled if it has any (real) fur in it,” added Watson.
“If people want to have a good fashion and good health, they should support companies that don’t use (real) fur. There are top fashion companies out there that don’t use it. Companies like Fendi, if we don’t give them the money they will stop using it,” he said. “They don’t change until they think they have to. If the consumers show them they don’t want fur, than they will change. I would call this a ‘responsible consumer’ and this changed the minds of a lot of consumers in U.S.”
Although the motivation may be the same, the in-depth interpretation on the issue and creating a win-win situation with clothing brands, shows a more practical way of how activists of animal rights should pursue their cause, Watson said.
During the rally, an old woman was shouting on the sidelines, “If the people don’t buy the product, Fendi will go away!” But none of the protesters seemed to capture the meaning of it.