Animal rights activists stage naked protest

MADRID - Agence France-Presse

Animal rights activists stage a protest in the middle of the Plaza de Espana. AFP photo

More than 100 animal rights activists from across Spain staged a naked protest at a busy square in the centre of Madrid on Sunday to denounce the slaying of animals to make fur coats.

The men and women, covered in red paint to resemble blood, laid down and curled up against each other under a sunny sky in the middle of the Plaza de Espana, which is home to several cinemas and cafes and restaurants.

They remained in the square for about half an hour despite a chilly temperature of just eight degrees Celsius before they disbanded and were served vegetable soup to warm up.

“We want consumers to be aware of the horrible suffering which this cruel and inhuman industry hides,” said Sergio Garcia Torres, the spokesman for the Spanish branch of global rights group AnimaNaturalis which staged the protest.

“With so many alternatives when it comes time to getting dressed, from cotton to linen, to polar fleece or microfibres, it makes no sense to take the skin of an animal to make clothes that can made in many other ways.”

Each year over 60 million animals, including foxes, minks, beavers and lynxes, are raised in captivity or captured and then killed in brutal ways to make fur coats, according to the animal rights group.

Spain along with Greece, Germany and Italy are key manufacturers of fur garments, it added.

It is the seventh straight year that AnimaNaturalis has staged a protest in Spain involving naked activists against the fur industry.