For Immediate Release: February 13, 2004

Contacts: Mercy For Animals (937) 652-8258

ACTIVISTS ASK VALENTINE’S DAY SHOPPERS TO "HAVE A HEART, DON'T WEAR FUR"

On-Site Video Unit Reveals Violent Truth Behind the Fur Industry

Columbus, OH - Holding Valentine-styled, heart-shaped signs reading, "Have a Heart, Don’t Wear Fur," members of the Ohio animal advocacy organization Mercy For Animals will urge Columbus Valentine's Day shoppers to show compassion toward animals this holiday by shunning fur. On a mobile TV unit activists will show just how heartless fur is by airing graphic undercover footage of mink having their necks broken and fox being electrocuted on fur farms.

Date: Saturday, February 14, 2004

Time: 12 noon - 1:00 PM

Location: at City Center Mall, 141 S. High Street

MFA wants consumers to know that mink, fox, chinchillas, raccoons, and other animals on fur farms spend their short lives confined to barren, tiny, urine- and feces-encrusted cages, constantly circling and pacing back and forth from stress and boredom. To the surprise of many potential fur buyers, no federal law protects animals on fur farms. Farmers often kill animals by anal or genital electrocution, which causes them to experience the intense pain of a heart attack while fully conscious. Other killing methods include neck-breaking and suffocation. Sometimes animals are only stunned and are then skinned alive. Animals trapped in the wild suffer for hours or even days before trappers arrive to stomp on their chests or break their necks. The trapped animal is left to suffer blood loss, infection, gangrene, exhaustion, exposure, frostbite, shock, or attack by nonhuman predators. Every year, traps also cripple and kill hundreds of thousands of dogs, cats, birds, and other animals -- including endangered species -- who are caught by mistake.

"Many of us celebrate Valentine’s Day by expressing our love for one another," says MFA’s Columbus regional coordinator Lizz Petroff. "But for the animals imprisoned in tiny filthy cages on fur farms, waiting only to be gassed, electrocuted, or suffocated; it’s simply another day of loneliness and fear."

Broadcast-quality footage of animal abuse in the fur industry will be available at the demonstration.