(NZ) Protests over rabbit lined clothing

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(New Zealand)

Hackles raised at fur protests

16.07.2001

By ANNE BESTON

Inner-city Auckland retailers say they are being targeted by a group of

animal rights activists who have issued death threats, cut phone lines and

chained themselves to shop windows.

Shop owners are worried about speaking out about the intimidation for fear

the abuse will escalate.

" They are violent, " said the owner of Leather Crazy, Teresa Chan, whose

Queen St shop has been targeted by the protesters for the past two months.

She said she had received death threats.

The activists have also targeted John Greer Shoes and department store Smith

& Caughey in Queen St.

Ms Chan said the group, waving banners featuring bloody animals and shouting

" murderer, " forced her and her staff to cower in the shop for two hours one

Saturday last month until police arrived.

In one incident, the group glued the shop's locks and cut the phone line,

she said.

The group also chained one of their young female members to a grille in the

shop window.Police used cutting gear to remove her.

When the shop closed at 5 pm, staff had to be escorted by police to their

cars, said Ms Chan, who describes herself as an animal lover and a pacifist.

Cameron Cooper, manager of John Greer, said the protesters told him they had

singled out his shop because it sold footwear lined with rabbit fur.

" We haven't been targeted to the same extent [as Ms Chan] but there has been

verbal abuse and threats to staff, " Mr Cooper said.

" I understand they are professionals. They know exactly how far they can go

before they get arrested. "

But Animal Action, the group responsible for the protests, denied gluing

locks or cutting phone lines and said their action was lawful.

Animal Action member Suzanne Carey said retailers did not realise the

rabbits were factory farmed in tiny cages.

Ms Carey said protests over rabbit fur sold in Smith & Caughey had been

successful. The company would not comment.

Ms Carey said John Greer Shoes had dismissed the group's concerns but other

retailers and the public had been sympathetic.

Auckland City councillor Jon Olsen plans to investigate the shop owners'

complaints.

" These people are not just animal right activists, they are anarchists. They

are manhandling, threatening and terrorising. "