Read the letters we have sent to L'Ours Blanc.

Read about Fur Free Friday '99

Fox in leghold trap. Some animals will bite off their own limbs in a desperate attempt to escape. More info.

L'Ours Blanc Furs, located at 10 N. State St., is the last remaining fur store in Salt Lake City. A very small storefront, most people don't even notice it's presence. But to the 10 million animals trapped for their fur each year, L'Ours Blanc represents the epitome of pain and torture.

On fur farms, animals suffer intensive confinement resulting in severe psychological implications. Caged fox, minks, and other victims engage in neurotic behavior patterns such as tail biting, pacing back and forth in a repetitive motion for hours, stomach ulcers, etc. All this before undergoing horrific deaths via anal-electrocution, genital-electrocution, gassing, neck breaking, and poison via injection.

Wisconsin, Utah and Minnesota are the leading mink producing states in the U.S. 31 million animals are raised and killed on fur farms each year. Mink account for 26 million, fox 4.1 million. Chinchillas, raccoon dogs (not to be confused with the North American raccoon), fitch and sable make up for most of the other ranch-raised fur-bearers.

L'Ours Blanc Furs, through the selling of the fur coats, contributes to the atrocity, making them chiefly to blame for trying to profit from this bloody industry. Ever since March of last year, the Utah Animal Rights Coalition has developed a campaign in protest of Salt Lake's last fur store, consisting of letter writing, articles, and protests.

On October 4th, 2000, we wrote a letter to L'Ours Blanc, expressing our desire to meet and discuss our willingness to help the owners make a transition into a more humane business. They never responded, so we again wrote to them on November 4th, conveying our continued desire to meet. We reserved a room in the Salt Lake Library for Tuesday, December 7th, 2000, to discuss the fur trade with the owners of L'Ours Blanc Furs. We showed up - but they must have had prior engagements, as they were not in attendance, even after we sent them a bouquet of roses reminding them of this meeting date.

If you would like to tell L'Ours Blanc Furs of the cruelty of their business choices, write a letter to the owner: