Gap Inc. Slapped With Cease-and-Desist Letter for Misleading Customers About Fur Sales

PETA Calls for End to INTERMIX’s Sale of Fur, as Gap Continues to Tout Deceiving Fur-Free Policy

For Immediate Release:
July 7, 2015

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

Retail giant Gap Inc. may soon find itself in trouble if the company continues to mislead shoppers by stating online that it is fur-free while continuing to sell fur through its brand INTERMIX. PETA’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter this morning to Arthur Peck, CEO of San Francisco–based Gap Inc., demanding that the company stop deceiving its customers and engaging in false advertising—a violation of both state and federal laws—and drop fur immediately.

“Gap Inc. has used its fur-free policy to lure in kind consumers who otherwise would never have supported a company that subjects animals to beatings, miserable confinement, and live skinning,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is demanding that the company drop fur from all its brands immediately, for the good of animals and consumers.”

Gap Inc., whose online policy reads, “We do not use … real fur,” has been caught misleading consumers before: In 2014, it came to light that its now-defunct brand Piperlime had continued selling fur despite Gap Inc.’s anti-fur policy, until PETA and other outraged consumers called for it to eliminate the cruel items. INTERMIX has been selling fur from rabbits, coyotes, foxes, minks, and Asiatic raccoon dogs—animals who are often slammed to the ground and bludgeoned with metal rods, causing convulsions and broken bones but not always immediate death. As documented by PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear,” eyewitness investigations have revealed that in China—the world’s largest exporter of fur and where INTERMIX may currently obtain much of its fur—rabbits are hung upside down, screaming and kicking, and forced to watch those ahead of them die violently before their own throats are cut.

Dozens of retailers—including Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Inditex, Ann Inc., Kenneth Cole, and J.Crew—have already banned fur from their collections.

PETA’s letter is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.