Harrods, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols shamed on ‘fur list’

Harrods, Selfridges, and Harvey Nichols are among the retailers on the receiving end of a new campaign against the sale of fur in UK shops.

Respect for Animals, one of the main bodies responsible for the closure of fur departments in the major stores in the early Nineties, has reignited the battle against the fur trade by accusing top names of lying over “strict anti-fur policies”.

It says that in a survey of 47 retailers which claimed not to sell fur, 14 were found to have items containing fur on sale. Harrods, Harvey Nichols, and Selfridges, as well as Fenwick, Yves St Laurent and Chanel, are among the 14 names on the list.

Selfridges says it decided to enforce a strict anti-fur policy at the end of last year, but that some items, including a range of clothes bought by fashion label Joseph, were still on sale.

Respect for Animals spokesman Mark Glover says: “It seems that some of Britain’s most famous retailers have found that ‘fur’ is a dirty word and that they do not like to admit to selling garments containing it.

“We shall be urging shoppers to stay away from the retailers on our list of shame until the stores do what they say.”

The animal rights body, which launches a nationwide cinema advertising campaign devised by DMB&B this week, plans to boycott the major stores and says it will publish its “list of shame” unless retail fur items are removed.

The ad, which contrasts images from inside a luxury women’s clothing shop with those from inside one of the remaining 14 fur factory farms in the UK, breaks on the day before the launch of London Fashion Week.

A Harrods spokesman says: “It is possible that whoever answered the questions thought they meant fur coats, which we stopped selling in the early Nineties. We openly sell fur-trimmed items and have done so consistently since then.”