FUR FIGHT

Today the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee is scheduled to hear Assembly Bill 44, a proposal to prohibit selling and manufacturing fur products in California.

The bill’s author, Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, said California should have no part in an industry that “puts animals through such suffering for nonessential ends.”

“As a state always on the cutting edge of technology and innovation, we should encourage this shift,” she wrote in the bill analysis. “Fur will always require the cruel and archaic confining, trapping and killing of animals solely for their fur, which must then be preserved with toxic chemicals.”

But the Fur Information Council of America is holding a press conference at 8:30 a.m. to detail its opposition to AB 44.

Among the group’s complaints is that the fur industry is already highly regulated, and members would rather see an independently monitored certification program they’re calling FURMARK that would heighten animal welfare standards. The group said it would rescind its opposition if the amendment is considered.

The briefing will be at 1127 11th St., Suite 523 in Sacramento, and the call-in number is 916-620-9710.