PETA Sends Hundreds of Fur Coats to Earthquake Victims

For Immediate Release:
February 14, 2023

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

PETA has sent more than 200 fur coats—all donated by people who experienced a change of heart about wearing fur—to aid the relief efforts in Syria and Turkey by locally based Life for Relief and Development, which will coordinate their distribution to victims of the devastating earthquake, many of whom are without electricity, shelter, or other necessities, so that they can keep warm during the winter.

“PETA can’t bring back the rabbits, minks, foxes, and others who were cruelly caged or trapped and painfully killed for their fur, so we’re sending the coats to desperate people who have a real need for them,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “We encourage people everywhere to donate their fur or fur-trimmed coats to help the only ones with any excuse for wearing them.”

“Life for Relief and Development has been working to provide aid to the thousands of displaced people of Syria and Turkey,” says Life for Relief and Development National/International Programs Coordinator Nicole Hoisington. “One of the most critical issues has been the lack of shelter and winter necessities during an already harsh winter season. These winter coats will dramatically improve the lives of the recipients, and LIFE is so grateful to PETA to be able to help in this way.”

PETA has worked with Life for Relief and Development for more than 15 years, ensuring that fur coat donations have reached people in need in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Pakistan. PETA also sends unwanted furs to homeless shelters and wildlife rehabilitation programs (to be used as bedding for orphaned animals) or uses them in informative displays.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.