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Fur protest forces Bebe store to close

Wency Leung, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, November 20, 2006

VANCOUVER - An animal rights group prompted a Robson Street clothing store to close for several hours on Sunday, after protesters entered the shop and took over its window display with an anti-fur demonstration.

About a dozen protesters with the activist group Liberation BC gathered outside the Bebe store at Robson and Burrard St. around noon, wearing placards showing skinned and captured animals. Four others inside held up a banner in the window that read "Death fur $ale," and repeatedly chanted, "Don't buy fur."

"If people didn't buy fur, there would be no fur industry," said Liberation BC spokeswoman Jan Olson. "The fur industry is the cruelest animal industry, and it's not even necessary. It's for fashion."

Olson said the demonstrators wanted a boycott of Bebe because the U.S.-based clothing chain uses fur in its clothing. A manager at the Bebe store, who declined to be named, said she called police after the protesters refused to leave.

About a half-hour into their demonstration, staff locked the front doors with the protesters still inside and waited for police. The police arrived around 3 p.m. and the protesters left the store, which reopened later in the afternoon.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006