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Beverly Hills backs fur trade

The proposal, known as Measure A, set animal rights activists and some of the town's famous residents against designer shops selling fur.

City spokeswoman Robin Chancellor said 3,363 voters had opposed the measure, while 1,908 voted in its favour. About 26.3% of Beverly Hills' registered voters had gone to the polls, she said.

Measure A would have required any garment containing fur and costing more than $50, to carry a credit card sized warning tag unless the shop could verify the animal was killed humanely.

The tag would have read: "This product is made with fur from animals that may have been killed by electrocution, gassing, neck breaking, poisoning, clubbing, stomping or drowning, and may have been trapped in steel-jaw, leg-hold traps."

Sellers would have been fined $100 for every item violating the law.

Furriers using pelts from animals killed by a lethal injection, administered by a licensed veterinarian would have been exempt.

The group behind the measure, Beverly Hills Consumers for Informed Choice, was disappointed by the vote but said it had won the public relations battle.

Luke Montgomery, the group's campaign manager, said: "All we wanted was a little tag telling people what animals go through and we got front pages all over the planet.

"A lot of people around the world now know about the cruelty these animals are put through. I couldn't be more happy with that fact."

'Shock value'

Furriers in Beverly Hills said they would have risked going out of business if the measure had been passed.

Douglas Fine of Somper Furs said: "Most of our 20,000 clients think the whole issue is ridiculous. The animal rights people are just doing it for the shock value. They're trying to put the industry out of business."

The measure was placed on the ballot after Beverly Hills Consumers for Informed Choice collected more than 3,000 signatures from voters in the city.

The group raised $75,000 and sent 5,000 videotapes to voters showing hidden camera footage of Beverly Hills furriers telling customers the deaths were humane.

The measure attracted famous backers including Jack Lemmon, Sid Caesar and Larry King.

'Waste of time'

Opponents spent $81,000 to fight the measure.

They formed the No on A campaign, saying the initiative was another attack by animal rights extremists who wanted to damage the fur industry. They also said Measure A would be difficult to enforce and was a waste of time.

A BBC correspondent in Los Angeles says the mayor of Beverly Hills will also be pleased that the measure has been defeated.

He said before the election that he did not want his officers to be forced to go into shops and examine fur coats and fur jackets.

Relevant Stories

Mink farm's £5,000 cruelty fine (11 Mar 99 | UK)
Fur flies over mink farms (21 Feb 99 | UK)

Internet Links

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Fur is Dead
International Fur Trade Federation

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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