 WEEKEND WARRIORS: Demonstrators outside Schumacher Furs downtown will soon need a new place to protest. |
Now that Schumacher Furs is leaving downtown, where will the store's protesters take their enlarged photos of skinned animals and chants of "40 dead animals, one fur coat"?
In Defense of Animals outreach coordinator Matt Rossell, one of the regular demonstrators each Saturday afternoon for nearly a year outside Schumacher's, expects the weekly protests to continue until Schumacher's actually closes its doors on Southwest Morrison Street later this spring.
"I have no intentions to follow them," says Rossell, speaking on behalf of IDA. "I can't say what other people will do. If they move their store to a place that is no longer conducive to doing outreach, then it doesn't make sense to do outreach there."
The dozen or so activists who regularly protest Schumacher's are a loosely organized group, mostly connected through IndyMedia and not necessarily affiliated with IDA, according to Rossell. Some on the IndyMedia website (portland.indymedia.org) vow to follow Schumacher's wherever it relocates.
"Wherever they move, we're going to have to find out and protest there. I'm not stopping until they're out of business and have to burn their coats to warm their homes. Maybe we could organize a carpool to get to their new location for those of us who don't drive," reads a Nov. 28 IndyMedia comment posted by someone identified as "Sky."
Meanwhile, Rossell says IDA intends to "create a dialogue" with Nicholas Ungar Furs, which on Southwest Yamhill Street is the only other fur-centered retailer downtown. Store representatives had "no comment" for WW about the possibility they may be the next target for protesters.
As for Schumacher's owner Gregg Schumacher, he doesn't have any advice for future targets. But his anger toward protesters hasn't cooled since he announced last week that he'll move the 111-year-old store from downtown to an undisclosed location.
"I define them as 'animal rights terrorists,'" Schumacher says. "There's actual terrorist activity going on in front of our store."
Some protesters see the move as a clear victory in their "war on fur," but Rossell says it's not so clear.
"I don't see it as a defeat, but it was never our intention to try to have Schumacher's leave town," said Rossell, who says the main goal was education. "One thing that's come out of this is, fur is controversial. It's not just acceptable in our society."
Schumacher declined to reveal where his store will move, though he did indicate it would be outside Multnomah County. Any rumor about a move to Bridgeport Village in Washington County was quelled by a call to Fred Bruning, president of CenterCal, which owns the upscale shopping center.
"That's not a tenant we'd want to have on our property because I'd be one of the protesters, probably," says Bruning.
For an extended interview with Matt Rossell, check out WWire at wweek.com.
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I adopted my eldest one 8 years ago, he was 6 months old, at the time.
I think the protesters protest too much. Chinchillas make great pets. Mine are well known throughout the city. Chinhillas are critically endangered in their indigenous region of South American Andes.
If it weren't for the 'ranchers', as they are known, you could not have a chinchilla for a pet. They really are sweet and dear creatures. Several people have commented to me, that my pets look for me. They know the sound of my car, I walk inside, and see all 5 of them, lined up at their cages, standing up, looking at the door I enter. They are smart!, They are loving! They love being taken out and about! I have educated many people as to the desirability of a chinchilla as a pet, or as I call them, roomies! In many respects, they are not so much as my animals, as I am their human. I am happy to serve them. They bring me much pleasure.
I eat meat. I wear leather. I use what I need, and I try to take care not to waste.
If it weren't for the chinchilla ranchers, you couldn't have a chinchilla(tribble), for a roomie.
The ranchers have to be very gentle and careful with the chinchillas. The chinchilla has a a built in self defence, if they are being grabbed, they shed their fur. their pores open, and the fur falls out, enabling the chinchilla to escape a predator. By the way, Chinchillas have 50 hairs per folicle, and their fur is the softest known to man. Or woman, for that matter. So any rancher hard on his animals, their fur will pop out. You have to wait for the fur to grow back in, to harvest it for a fur piece. If you are mean to chinchillas you ranch, you can not sell their fur! It will be damaged.
Minks, they are carnivorous. They eat meat. Viciously. You can not handle a mink, unless you are wearing thick leather gloves. Again with the animal skin. Leather. I'd like to see one of the protesters try to cuddle a live mink. I'd giggle at that site. As a matter of fact, if protesters where ranched for their skins, minks would be at the back door begging for their flesh. Bon Apetite!
Rabbits? I eat their flesh on occassion. It's tastey. I'd never try chinchilla tho, too dear to me.
One last thought, If the protesters eventually(hopefully not) drive the furriers out of business, what then becomes of the animals already in captivity? People think my chinchillas are cute, til they hear they can live to be 20-30 years old. They aren't so cute then.
The protesters shouldn't be chided for not taking in creatures noone wants. The creatures are better off not in the protesters possession.
Shut up with the mouth protesters. Walk your talk!
Animals have been reduced to commodities and in the process of cutting corners to save a few bucks, every dignity and consideration are striped from them, even access to water in the case of the foxes I met on an Illinois fur farm, many of whom were dying of dehyration.
Assumptions that we pick on small businesses; that, for example, McDonalds and Burger King have not been the target of animal rights demonstrations, is inaccurate. Campaigns have already been waged and won to get McDonald's, Burger King and Wendys to make concessions that give at least a bit more consideration to the well-being of the animals killed for these fast food golliaths. The momentum has moved to KFC and eventually they too will be forced to inch forward toward a more humane world.
You may or may not quite yet understand animal rights, but who really believes that animals should get absolutely no alleviation of the immense suffering that factory farming and other exploitation inflicts?
With our choices, we make the difference for animals, and people who fight for animal rights think everyone deserves to make educated choices, knowing the true consequenses.