Landeskunde USA Animal protection problems

Jet-Set skiers run into

anti-fur storm

SPEN, the fashionable winter playground for Americas jet-set, where

5
the average house price is $1.1 million
(666,000) and hedonism is a way of life,
seems an unlikely setting for the debate of an
emotionally-charged issue that could have
worldwide repercussions.
10 Although the town, set in the Colorado
Rockies, is dependent on its tourists for survival, it is those expensively-dressed, fur-clad
visitors who find themselves unwittingly in the
eye of a gathering storm.
15 For as the rich and famous ski by day and
party by night, the towns 3,500 electors are
preparing to go to the polls to vote on
whether to make Aspen the first city in the
world to ban the sale of fur coats made from
20wild animals.
It is an issue that has turned the picturesque
resort into something like a war zone, with the
strident pro- and anti-ban fractions flinging
insults and accusations against each other. It is
25also directly responsible for a separate motion
on the ballot to oust from office the pro-ban
mayor and three city councillors.
To the unknowing visitors, it may seem a
pointless battle. There are only a handful of fur
30shops in Aspen, and many of the furs in the
town have flown in on the backs of visitors.
But since Aspen was the first city in the
U.S. to ban smoking in restaurants a trend
that mushroomed across the country it is
35being seen as an issue of national importance.
Nowadays, Aspen, which was once so
proud of its community spirit, is a divided
town. On one side is bookshop owner Katherine Thalberg, 54. She and her husband, Bill
40Sterling, the towns mayor, run the Aspen
Society for Animal Rights. On the other side is
the Aspen Concerned Citizens Coalition,
headed by local fur shop manager Mark Kirkland, which is opposed to the ban.
45 Both sides are pouring money into the fight
with television and full-page newspaper ad-

vertisements. The Animals Rights Societys

advertisements show graphic pictures of
creatures with their legs caught in steel traps
50and the caption: Fur. Its Not a Pretty Business.
The Concerned Citizens Coalition is countering with: If they can ban fur, they can ban
meat and The American Way Freedom of
55Choice.
The issue has become so heated that a
group of women who went into a restaurant
wearing fur coats were booed and jeered until
they left. Other incidents are reported in which
60people wearing furs have been made to wait
long time for tables in the towns restaurants,
and, when seated, find the service is unusually
slow.
Some residents say they have received tele65phone calls from out-of-town friends asking if
they were still allowed to wear their furs in the
town..
Mr Kirkland says the ban would deter rich
tourists who bring in millions of dollars. Its a
70public relations disaster, he says. We have
created the most expensive ski resort in the
world, and people who patronise it are the
people who wear fur. They come to Aspen to
wear their furs.
75 Although the furriers see the ban campaign
as simply an attempt to put them out of business, there is far more to it. Generally, those in
favour of the ban are the long-term residents,
many of whom resent affluent tourists and
80second-home owners, who have pushed up
prices and forced much-needed seasonal
workers and restaurant staff to live far away.
[Shortened and adapted from THE SUNDAY
TELEGRAPH, Jan 28, 1990; 564 words.]

hm-abo Mrz 1990