West Hollywood City Councilmember Lindsey Horvath drew criticism from local animal rights groups this week and pulled a motion at Tuesday’s city council meeting to have the city work with the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to identify and educate local businesses who could be affected by the Truth in Fur Labeling Act.

Fur Free WeHo has been holding protests every Saturday calling for the city to ban the sale of clothing made from animal fur. (photo courtesy of Ellen Lavinthal)

The legislation was passed by President Barack Obama in December and will go into effect March 18. The act closed a loophole in the law that allowed retailers to sell products that contained fur without a label if the product was sold for under $150.

“This action was taking a proactive approach to educate our businesses before the law goes into effect,” Horvath said. “Once this act is enforced, all businesses will be required to truthfully label all of their products.”

Horvath added that her motion was supported by many animal rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Horvath’s plan would have staff from West Hollywood City Hall and the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce work to identify stores in the city that sell fur and then bring in an expert from the HSUS to educate the business owners on the particulars of the law before it goes into effect.

After March 18, businesses who sell fur products without a label can be reported by consumers to the Federal Trade Commission and business owners could face a $5,000 fine and a year in jail if found guilty of a violation.

Ellen Lavinthal, co-founder of Fur-Free Weho, said her organization was strongly opposed to Horvath’s intention to educate businesses. Lavinthal said that the law will go into effect in March regardless of whether the businesses are educated.

“It’s a move to court the favor of businesses,” Lavinthal added. “Calling this an animal-friendly measure is what we are against.”

Fur-Free Weho has been working to get the City of West Hollywood to pass a ban on the sale of fur in the city and Lavinthal said Horvath’s motion was a waste of time.

Chris DeRose, founder of Last Chance for Animals (LCA), also said he did not think Horvath’s motion was necessary and that the focus should be on banning the sale of fur in the city.

“This derails the real point that there shouldn’t be any labels at all because there should not be fur clothing,” DeRose said.

DeRose founded LCA in 1984 and his organization worked with West Hollywood in 1989 when the city passed Resolution 559, which declared the city a “cruelty-free zone” for animals. LCA has also been involved with Fur-Free Weho in lobbying for a ban on the sale of fur in the city.

“The city really needs to stay focused on banning fur,” DeRose said. “No matter what labels you put on the clothing, the animals are still suffering.”

LCA released a statement Monday denouncing Horvath’s intentions to introduce the motion at the council meeting, but inaccurately stated that Horvath was against banning the sale of fur in West Hollywood.

“It stirred up a lot of people,” DeRose said. “Many of our constituents called and emailed her to complain. But she had not officially taken a position on the ban and that was a mistake on our part.”

Horvath addressed many of those complaints by finally stating her position on the sale of fur.

“I denounce the sale of fur and fur-trimmed clothing,” Horvath said. “I don’t believe any animal should be killed for the sake of fashion and I am very supportive of creating a fur-free community, but we need to be sure on how such a ban would be implemented.”

Horvath decided to table the measure and instead work with members of LCA to try and get another measure on the council agenda for the next meeting on March 7.

“I thought there was an opportunity to bring people together and work something out that would satisfy everyone,” Horvath said.

Fur-Free Weho has held weekly demonstrations throughout West Hollywood every Saturday for the past four weeks and Lavinthal said the organization convinced Maxfield to remove all fur products from its West Hollywood location. Lavinthal added that councilmember John Duran has been present at many of the demonstrations and that he has been working on developing an ordinance to ban the sale of fur.

Duran could not be reached for comment, but Horvath stated that she was aware of Duran’s work on an ordinance and attributed that for the delay in her taking a position on the issue.

“He has been doing his due-diligence,” Horvath said. “I’ve been aware of his work on the issue and I was waiting for him to finish before taking an official position.”