Stores could be fined from $500 to $1,500 for each violation under the proposed ban, but used fur apparel would be exempt

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

New York City would ban the sale of fur under new legislation introduced Thursday in the city council.

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The city – home to the biggest market for fur in the United States – would join places such as Los Angeles and San Francisco as cities that have passed laws banishing mink coats and coyote-trimmed jackets from sale.

“I’m an animal lover, and I believe that it is cruel to kill an animal just for the purpose of buying and wearing a fur coat,” the city council speaker, Corey Johnson, who is sponsoring the ban, said at city hall on Thursday.

High-end designers, he noted, have increasingly abandoned fur as a fashion symbol. “Michael Kors doesn’t use fur. Donatella Versace doesn’t use fur. Diane von Furstenberg doesn’t use fur. The industry has moved away from fur, because it’s cruel and inhumane,” he said.

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But there are 130 businesses in the city that primarily sell fur – which employ up to 1,100 people, the industry estimates, and would be forced out of business if the ban goes through.

That doesn’t count big department stores and high-end retailers, such as Bloomingdale’s and Saks, which sell fur apparel alongside other items.

“It’s shocking that they would want to do this,” said Nancy Daigneault, vice-president of the International Fur Federation. “These are people’s jobs. These people are fourth-, fifth-generation furriers. They’ve been good, tax-paying citizens for a very long time. They want to feed their families.”

Stores could be fined from $500 to $1,500 for each violation of the proposed ban. It would exempt used fur apparel. Officials are also considering adding an exception for religious garb, such as the large fur hats worn by some men in the Orthodox Jewish community.

The bill was introduced alongside other animal-friendly measures, which would ban the declawing of cats and require new buildings to use glass that deters birds from smashing into buildings.