WeHo Mayor John D’Amico Addresses Rodeo Drive Anti-Fur Demonstration

The “bloodiest street in America”? Would that be Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Missouri, where the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer has sparked nationwide protests? Would it be Halsted Street in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood, which various services rank as the country’s most dangerous? Well, if you were in Beverly Hills on Friday you’d hear a group of animal rights activists declare that that dubious distinction belonged to Rodeo Drive.

The group marched down Rodeo Drive, one of the nation’s best known and most exclusive shopping districts, for a “fur free Friday” demonstration. It was staged on what’s known as “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving when holiday sales usually move even struggling retailers into the black. The demonstration was captured by a participant in the video posted above.

West Hollywood Mayor John D’Amico addressed the group. D’Amico put forth what became the nation’s first city fur ban, approved by the City Council in 2011 when it passed a law making it “unlawful for anyone to sell, import, export, trade or distribute’ any new clothing product made wholly or partly of animal fur by any means anywhere in the city on or after Sept. 21, 2013.”

That law has been challenged by Mayfair House, a West Hollywood retailer, which received a citation for selling uggs. Uggs are a sheepskin boot made of twin-faced sheepskin with fleece on the inside and a tanned outer surface. Animal rights activists have condemned uggs, arguing that their manufacture requires the otherwise unwarranted death of sheep. But others point out that uggs actually are a by-product of processing sheep for human consumption, much like the leather that is a by-product of the harvesting of cattle for beef.