05/24/16 Dunja Vejzovic: I used to wear fur, but today I'm a staunch supporter of animal rights!
After veterinarians, Croatian intellectuals show support for ban on fur farming in Croatia
- Darko Rundek, Slobodan Snajder, and a number of Croatian professors and scientists side with chinchillas
The possible lift of the fur farming ban horrified Croatian intelligentsia. Croatian intellectuals joined vets in the support of the existing legislature that protects chinchillas from being farmed and killed for fur. They cite the moral unacceptability of using animals for fur production.
Dunja Vejzovic, a world-renowned opera prima donna and music pedagogue, admits to wearing fur in the past, but after years of learning about the use of animals in the clothing industry, she turned into a staunch supporter of animal rights. Musician and stage director Darko Rundek says: "I'm proud that Croatia passed a law banning fur farming and don’t see any reason to exclude chinchillas from that law."
Famous Croatian author and publicist Slobodan Snajder joined "those who fiercely oppose the announced update of the Animal Protection Act for the purpose of legalizing chinchilla farming so they can be skinned, transforming living beings into walking, but dead fur." He concludes that the fur farming of chinchillas is "a kind of genocide" for profit and that tiny chinchillas would be farmed "just so that their fur can become a square inch of a fur coat—say, its pocket."
Mirela Holy, Sc. D., cautions that by announcing the lift of the ban on fur farming, Croatia "shows a worrying regression in relation to the EU political trends." She adds: "Using animal fur for clothing is a major moral failure for no better reason that mere vanity." Stage director Sanda Hrzic reiterates that "the nauseating business" of chinchilla fur farming has had a 10-year phase-out period "to adjust and transition to a new industry" and the time is almost up.
Prof. Aleksandar Jakir, Sc. D., dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split, points out that farming animals for clothing is morally unacceptable "in an age when we can get clothing of equal quality made without somebody's suffering." Drazen Jerabek, an art professor and illustrator, says that when it comes to animals today, nobody gets to "plead ignorance, only indifference, which leads to apathy" and that we need lessons in compassion in educational institutions.
Prof. Hrvoje Juric, Sc. D. from the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb holds that "fur farming of chinchillas and other nonhuman animals is at the top of the list of things that could be banned immediately with no consequence for human life." He is worried because "the legal regulation of the status of nonhuman animals and their rights is regressing in spite of the hopes that the achieved advances will be preserved and further civilizational, cultural, and social breakthroughs attempted in the field."
Suzana Marjanic, Sc. D., senior research scientist at Zagreb's Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, also considers chinchilla fur farming immoral and quotes the writer William Ralph Inge: "We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion (and luckily they aren't), they would depict the Devil in human form."
After vets and the majority of the public, the attitude of Croatian highbrows clearly shows that they expect the complete cessation of fur farming starting January 1, 2017. Find more info and opinions on fur farming at www.prijatelji-zivotinja.hr and sign a petition for a better Animal Protection Act.
Check out the new abbreviated video of the ambassadors of the "Chinchillas Rule" campaign, Goran Višnjic, Ivica Kostelic, Vanna, Luka Nižetic, and Iva Sulentic at the Animal Friends YouTube channel.