Fur Protesters Will Confront Nordstrom At Thursday Grand Opening

Houston, Tex. – Thursday afternoon, members of In Defense of Animals (IDA) will attend the Nordstrom Rack grand opening event at the Post Oak Centre, to educate customers about Nordstrom’s promotion of the cruel fur industry. IDA coordinates a nationwide campaign urging the family-run Nordstrom corporation to stop selling fur. Animal advocates will distribute information asking Nordstrom customers to speak up for animals by contacting company president Blake Nordstrom. Activists will display a giant image of a beautiful bunny on an eye-catching six-foot banner with the message, “Nordstrom, please open your hearts. Stop selling fur!”

What:    Nordstrom fur-free outreach event
Where:  New Nordstrom Rack, at Centre at Post Oak, 5000 Westheimer Road,  Houston, TX 77056 (corner of Westheimer  and Post Oak)
When:   Thursday, February 25, 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

“The Nordstrom family loves animals, and they have already made the right choice not to wear fur themselves,” said IDA’s Matt Rossell, who worked undercover for four months exposing horrific abuse on an Illinois fur farm. “But Nordstrom continues to have an ethical blind spot when it comes to embracing that fur-free ethic for their company.”

The Nordstrom family long ago removed fur salons from their stores after learning about the abuse of animals being trapped and farmed for their fur, and more recently the corporation has taken fur off their name-brand line of clothing. Nordstrom also sells a large collection of faux fur garments. However, Nordstrom continues to carry real fur on clothing from other designers, which is the sticking point preventing them from attaining fur-free status.

On fur farms, life in a tiny cage leads animals to go mad from confinement where they frantically pace, often self-mutilating or cannibalizing cage mates. Every natural instinct, such as the ability to run, swim, and interact socially, is denied these beautiful wild animals. In the end, they are killed by cruel slaughter methods including crude gassing, anal electrocution, neck breaking and poisoning.

Animals caught in steel-jawed traps and snares can linger in pain for days before a trapper come to kill them; some will even chew off a limb to escape. For more information, please visit www.furkills.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 25, 2010
Contact: Matt Rossell, matt@idausa.org, 503-890-5151