Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (Photo: Committee on Judiciary hearing)
California’s Ban on Fur is Now Law
Oops: Faux fur is a petroleum product, made of plastic synthetic polymers
By Katy Grimes, January 3, 2023 4:19 pm
California’s ban on the sale of fur is now official, effective January 1, 2023. Whew. Thank goodness we no longer have to be concerned with barbarians who wear fur.
Rather, that is what California’s politicians on the left want you to think.
The first duty of the government is to protect its citizens. Former President Ronald Reagan understood this and had another take on it: “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.”
Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) authored AB 44 in 2019, to prohibit the sale and manufacture of new fur in California. “Today there are a variety of humane alternatives, both in terms of faux fur that is virtually indistinguishable from real fur, and alternative textiles that are just as warm or fashionable,” Friedman said. “There is no need for fur in the 21st century and no place for it in a sustainable future.”
“There’s no reason for this bill other than one class of society telling another class of society what they can and cannot wear,” Sen. Brian Jones (R-Santee) said.
Gov. Newsom signed AB 44 into law. Assemblywoman Friedman said her motivation is for California to lead the nation in statewide fur bans… from her Glendale home, in sunny Southern California.
While California will now have the distinction of being the first state in the country to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products, Gov. Newsom also signed a law to allow drivers who fatally strike a deer, elk, antelope or wild pig to take the animal home and cook it. ????
California’s obsession with misguided animal “protections” has been devastating for business owners, farmers and ranchers.
Assemblywoman Friedman also said fur is a “fashion statement and statement of wealth. There is no need for warmth,” from fur, she added, mentioning the many faux fur products available.
As the Globe pointed out, California has many diverse climates within its 164,000 square miles. San Diego to Siskiyou, Death Valley to Bodie State Park (near Bridgeport, Mono County), temperatures range from 110 degrees to -5 degrees, where people wear fur for warmth.
The fur trade ranks as one of America’s oldest, continuously operating industries, with more than 400 years of history. The fur industry in the United States comprises more than 1,000 fur retailers, 100 manufacturers, more than 200 small family farmers, and tens of thousands of trappers, all of whose businesses, jobs and livelihoods depend on the industry. Retail fur sales in California alone exceeded $300 million, and is was an important source of employment and tax revenues to the State.
Nationally, furs account for around $531 million in sales—25 percent to 30 percent of that in California.
The fur ban is part of a “radical vegan agenda using fur as the first step to other bans on what we wear and eat,” Keith Kaplan of the Fur Information Council said in a California Globe article.
Notably, Assemblywoman Friedman neglected to address the fact that faux fur is a petroleum product, made of plastic synthetic polymers, and are not biodegradable. I thought California Democrats are vehemently opposed petroleum products.
“Having tried for over 20 years unsuccessfully to win in the court of public opinion the very narrow minority who support the Vegan agenda now look to lawmakers to force this agenda on the public,” Keith Kaplan of the Fur Information Council told the Globe. “It is happening for fur, leather, meat and medical research. Merely giving in to the campaigns of deception, the harassment, intimidations and illegal activities of these animal extremists does not show leadership. Lawmakers must stand up and identify means of addressing animal welfare in meaningful ways while still protecting individual consumer freedom. That is true leadership.”
Could leather be next up on Democrats’ long list of items to ban? Animal meat?
Notably, in 2020, the International Fur Federation, based in London, announced a lawsuit to prevent San Francisco from implementing a 2018 city ordinance banning the sale of “cruel fur products.” However, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the lawsuit.
The San Francisco ordinance gave existing department stores until Jan. 1, 2020, to sell off their remaining fur stock and prohibits the sale of newly manufactured fur coats, hats, gloves, lined parkas (such as Canada Goose jackets), and other products.
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June 13, 2019
I have never worn fur but I think I will start even if I have to drive to another state. I have my eye on a nice shearling coat. 😉
I’m with you, CW.
These people give away their true motivations by being so consistently and unnecessarily NASTY and SPITEFUL. It’s all about acting out the rage that results from their miserable lives and sticking their fingers in the eyes of normal people they wish to irritate and control. And let’s not forget how they love to kill business. And how they adore spitting on 400 years of history. And oh yeah, what’s with the reliance on petroleum-made fabrics and products, as Katy pointed out? Phonies.
These people dearly LOVE banning things out of spite and YES, there will be more. In related news, radical “animal rights” activists managed to shut down the 70-year-old pony rides in L.A.’s Griffith Park. These pony rides have been known to be the ONLY opportunity children from all backgrounds who are not exactly landed gentry in L.A.’s urban environment have to experience riding a horse. Proud of yourselves, animal activist buzz killers? What wonderful experience or product is next on your agenda and headed for the ash heap?
“Protesters gather in Griffith Park as pony rides shut down after 70 years”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERYQUq2_iUs
Showandtell – I completely agree with you. My father took a photo of me and my brother on the little ponies in Griffith Park when we were about 5 and 8 years old. That was such a great experience to ride those ponies. I took my two boys there when they were about 8 and 10 and took their photo with the ponies. I was so sad to see that these looney lefty animal rights group decided to go after this pony ride experience. They seem to be able to justify anything and get the courts involved in helping them. Good grief!
I’m with you too WC. I own a mink jacket that I have had for the past 40 years and it is beautiful. I wear it once in a while on cold nights and if I go skiing at a resort. I’m so sick of these dimwits trying to control our lives in every which way. They have run our beautiful state in to the ground with all their spending and laws!! Maybe they should put their efforts in to the homeless situation and fire prevention which is pushing up our home insurance rates way up and which is pushing insurers out of California. It should be obvious to anyone with a brain that people are leaving California by the hundreds of thousands because of dimwit policies. We lost a Congressional seat and may lose more if they keep this up.
So, if I’m driving along and “accidentally” strike an illegal alien invader, what are my options? I mean, they’re kind of like a wild pig…certainly in terms of their destructive nature and tendencies. Maybe just drag it until it’s no longer distinguishable? I dunno…need guidance please.
“While California will now have the distinction of being the first state in the country to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products, Gov. Newsom also signed a law to allow drivers who fatally strike a deer, elk, antelope or wild pig to take the animal home and cook it. ????”
So, the harvesting of road kill by drivers is legal. But if the driver skins the kill and harvests the fur and sells it, then the driver can be arrested? More idiot0cracy from the loony left.
Silly, isn’t it, Raymond? I’m not exactly laughing but the mental image is almost cartoonish.
Maybe it’s another sign that their ridiculous nonsense is collapsing now like a house of cards.
Sure hope so! Lately it seems there are a lot of signs like this around us.
Once again, the Dems and their propagandists in the press go on and on about how Trump and Republicans are “authoritarians” but no one is more Authoritarian in the US than the Democrats. From vaccine mandates for a virus with a 99.8% survival rate to what you can eat and even wear, there is no amount of oppression that the Dem’s don’t mind subjecting us all to.
Leave it to a radical far-left Democrat like Assemblywoman Laura Friedman to focus on fur legislation instead of legislation that matters to most Californians like adequate, affordable and reliable sources of water and power.
A friend of mine was a curator at a Haight street San Francisco vintage clothing store. It served the theater industry and museums as well as the public with garments dating back 200 years or so. They were raided by the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife because they had some women’s coats from the 1890’s that had ivory buttons. The owner was thrown into the San Francisco Jail and the game warden confiscated the entire inventory and never paid the employees. Also, when the raid took place, they also arrested random tourist customers including a woman from the Philippines who was then strip searched under the Patriot Act and expelled from the United States with a permanent travel ban.
When do we start calling out the idiocy of the dimwits and stop giving them any attention?
Everyone knows petroleum is warmer than fur, don’t they?
I like your sense of humor Mike!! Thanks for a laugh!
Oh, what’s the state going to do with the reduction in sales taxs.