Submitted by NYC activists –
Unlike the first 2 protests when we entered Saks in complete stealth mode taking over the fur salon right before disrupting, or on the traditional Fur free Friday Weekend Action where we were met by 6 NYPD cruisers, motorcades and 25 police officers right before 60 ARA stormed into Saks Fifth Avenue (with little resistance) disrupting their business, we took over both floors followed by an epic banner drop from the top of the escalator then taking our message to the streets with 2 models wearing fur coats drenched in fake blood, on January 9th 35 activists were met by security saying “Not today you won’t”.
The front entrance of Saks’s iconic fashion store was immediately barricaded with an NYPD gate, which surely security asked to borrow from the NYPD’s stash lined up on 5th Ave. Our demo was held 2 days following the terror attack in DC. New York’s Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center and other iconic landmarks surrounding Saks were under strict surveillance due to an Anti-Trump Rally in Time Square, just blocks away.
Regardless (or despite) that Saks 5th Avenue barricaded their entrance, closed for business, the cold weather and the somewhat large police presence, determined activists sent a powerful message lasting 60 minutes, layered with: Animal screams, drums, the Truth TVs playing horrific footage of fur bearing animals suffering in abhorrent conditions then violently killed, whistles, a prop resembling a skinned fox covered in bloodied fur was placed in front of Saks- and loud chants carried on.Also – we educated New Yorker’s about the Bill 1476 in NYC Council to ban the retail sale of new fur.
Our presence was powerful, our message crystal clear – “Saks has blood on its hands.”
A mother, and her 8 year old daughter wearing a huge fur-trimmed hoodie (Asiatic raccoon) stopped to view and film the footage playing. I asked if she knew who the trim on her daughter’s coat once belonged to. I explained to her the vile fur industry targets children at a very young age and that Saks sold fur stolen from animals just like in the video. Both were horrified. We tried to remove the trim but sadly it was sewn on, and I had forgotten my trusty seam ripper at home. She swore to never buy fur again.
Saks’ CEO Mark Metrick can no longer ignore the ever growing number of activists who have joined in solidarity the pressure campaign demanding Saks Fifth Avenue, one of the few luxury retailers still ripping the skin off of animals for blood money, to stop using fur.
We hit Saks Fifth Avenue for the fifth time at their flagship store, demanding they end the sales of fur, fur stolen from once beautiful animals. We won’t stop.
$65,000 – $265,000 chinchilla, fox, Russian sable and mink coats hang in Saks’ opulent salon setting, but we all know the ugly truth: darkness, unheard cries, captivity, filthy fur farms, psychosis, anal electrocution, gassing, broken necks, defenseless sentient beings skinned alive.
It’s 2021, why is the fur industry even operating? Human’s selfish vanity fuels the demand, and old perverted mob type furriers desperately try to keep this barbaric trade alive by supplying it.
In Denmark fur farmers recently massacred 17 million mink due to a COVID-19 outbreak. In Canada and the US, COVID-19 outbreaks in mink farms have been reported and published. It’s only a matter of time before Covid-19 spreads on fur farms like raging fires and infects the human population – a manager on one of the 36 mink farms in Utah has died.
Saks will not stop hearing us until they stop the killing! Photos were taken by security and sent to Headquarters.
Will Saks be the last department store to stop selling fur from tortured animals, or will they follow suit and ban fur as many retailers and designers have over the recent years?
Activists worldwide will continue to protest lazy, talentless designers, and luxury retailers who refuse to stop selling fur stolen and often brutally skinned alive from millions of tortured animals who are violently murdered each year in the name of blood fashion. The fur industry, which profits entirely off of immense suffering, must die once and for all.
It’s 2021. Fur in clothing is not “fashion.” It is a barbaric, obsolete, colonial vestige that has no place in this time and age. We demand that SAKS steps into the 21st Century, and realize the fur trade has nothing to offer except the most heinous, barbaric form of cruelty for a product no one needs.
For a while now, warm and stylish indistinguishable alternatives have been widely available. It is long overdue to evolve, and move away from partaking in these horrors.
We will use our voices to amplify the screams of countless victims silenced by the fur industry, show the public the horrific conditions documented on fur farms, and the brutal methods used to turn animals into coats, trims, morbid accessories sold at SAKS.
“MARK METRICK, PLAY THESE VIDEOS IN YOUR DEATH SALONS. SHOW THE TRUTH,CUSTOMERS DESERVE TO SEE THE HORRIFIC CONDITIONS DEFENSELESS BABY ANIMALS ARE BRED INTO, FORCED TO SUFFER IN FILTHY FUR FARMS, GO INSANE BEFORE BEING TORTURED AND KILLED BY METHODS ONLY A PSYCHOPATH SADIST IS CAPABLE OF. ARE YOU THIS MONSTER DRIVEN BY BLOOD MONEY?”
Just remember, had the world listened to animal rights activists, zoonotic diseases would not have spread. Mocking those who fight for compassion and justice – even while a zoonotic pandemic has upturned the world – is a sign of ignorance, not wisdom. This pandemic should be a clear call to evolve, to move past such obsolete practices that torture animals.The animals try to stop humans from hurting them through their screams, attempts to escape, and now they have mutated a strain of COVID and passed it back to humans- maybe now the abusers will listen.
We’ve asked the public to help animals with their message to leave them alone by contacting Saks (even though they recently disabled comments on their social media accounts.) The full throttle pressure and incredible growing numbers of activists in numerous cities, must be getting to Saks.
Again, we we’ll continue to use our voices to amplify the screams of animals silenced by the fur industry, by Saks. New York Animal Rights Activists are not playing around.”
