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Cat & Dog Fur Ban

2004

Heather received Videotape and got Involved

Having watched Heather speak passionately at the No More Landmines gala in Los Angeles, Dennis Erdman, one of the director’s of ‘Sex in the City’ targeted Heather to help spearhead the ongoing fight for a European wide ban & sent her a videotape depicting the cruelty endured upon dogs and cats. He said to Heather, “look, you seem to have made campaigns work. You've got to help us.” This campaign resonated strongly with Heather. Watching images of Alsatian puppies and Golden Retrievers being skinned alive horrified her and as a dog lover and owner she felt that she must commit wholeheartedly to help forward this campaign with all her passion, drive and commitment.

Heather’s high profile and media interest was immediately put to good use and Dennis Erdman’s decision that Heather was the right person to bring this cruel and superficial trade under spotlight proved to be a shrewd one. Heather’s hands on style of activism and willingness to use all available means at her disposal to push things forward, injected an extra impetus and momentum toward the total EU wide ban.

Heather dedicated much time toward the campaign and devoted a prominent area of her website to help raise awareness. Visitors to her site were able to view the harrowing footage and then sign the petition immediately afterwards. Heather also designed her own leaflets and hit the streets personally handing them out to shoppers on Oxford Street, paying special attention to those wearing fur by attempting to ‘educate’ them in typical Heather no nonsense style.

On the streets of London Heather discovered fur scarves being sold as fake fur. Heather sent them off to be tested and found that they were in fact made out of real rabbit fur. She made the point on national television about how widespread the problem was, highlighting the fact that there is no legal requirement to label fur garments in the UK.

Heather used her high profile status where it counted the most, on the campaign frontline. She managed to get the campaign debated about all over Europe, featuring in many prominent publications. The sad fact is many of these publications have no interest in covering genuine newsworthy topics such as these atrocities in China, but prefer celebrity gossip, to highlighting many important issues. This is why celebrity campaigners have become so important to campaigns such as these as they guarantee far wider coverage of the issue. This is a sad fact concerning modern media, but a true one. Heather is one of the few hands on celebrities as her lifes work has been mainly charity based for nearly 20 years.

Importantly Heather managed to bring much needed television coverage including a special report for the BBC’s Six O'clock News, GMTV and the BBC Real Story documentary against the fur trade shown in May 2006. As a direct result of the Real story documentary, which was shown to a prime time audience of millions in the UK, the petition received 80,000 extra signatures. The media has the power to be such a powerful medium when it choses to be. Unfortunately the UK press especially has a tendency to focus on so much that is not even newsworthy and purely sensationalist.