Animal lovers' fury at Shropshire vintage fur coats sale
Animal lovers have reacted with anger over an auction of vintage fur coats and tiger, zebra and leopard skins being held in Shropshire tomorrow.
The Halls Christmas Collective sale in Shrewsbury also includes vintage coats and jackets using the furs of animals including snow leopard, cheetah and fox.
Animal Defenders International has criticised the planned inclusion of the items.
But Halls has said it is doing nothing wrong in selling such items, in common with many other auction houses around the country.
Under the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, selling fur coats and animal skins that date from before 1947 is a regulated trade.
Fleur Dawes, from ADI, called Halls last week to ask for the removal of the items from the auction, with the request followed by a letter and a statement by the organisation's chief executive Jan Creamer. Ms Creamer said: "There can be no excuse for the public sale of these items which condone and glamorise the terrible suffering of the animals involved."
A statement from Halls said: "Halls Fine Art, as part of its collective auction, is legitimately selling fur coats, animal skins and taxidermy in accordance with government regulations, as a regulated trade for pre-1947 articles. We are just one of many auction houses across the UK that sells such 'vintage' items on behalf of clients.
"We would emphasise that, as an auction house, we do not support or condone the trade in the skins of live and endangered species. The material we are selling is 'vintage'."
Meanwhile, a small, unrecorded archive of manuscripts and letters by singer, conductor and composer Sir George Henschel, one of the leading English musicians of his day, is to be auctioned tomorrow.
