A FASHION house has provoked controversy by dressing children as young as five in furs for this year's winter collection.Bonpoint, the luxury French children's label, in its catalogue dresses little girls in rabbit-fur coats and adorns them with fur purses and brooches made from rabbit skin.
Animal rights campaigners have accused the couture house, which entertained US first lady Michelle Obama and her two daughters at its Paris headquarters during Barack Obama's first visit to France as President in 2009, of courting controversy to get publicity.
Bonpoint is offering a baby's rabbit-fur gilet for $184, while a rabbit-fur coat for a six-year-old will cost $333.
Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claims 70 million rabbits are killed for fur in France each year.
"This is a provocative way of getting attention," said Mimi Bekhechi, manager of Peta Europe. "The rabbit fur is not a by-product of the meat trade. These animals are bred for their fur and kept crammed together in tiny cages."
The group has posted a video on YouTube taken inside a fur farm in which live rabbits are shown strung up by their legs on conveyor belts on their way to be skinned.
Andrew Tyler, director of Britain's Animal Aid, said: "It's a pretty perverted marketing strategy to induce young children to drape themselves in the product of extreme cruelty but we expect nothing better from fur advocates."
Bonpoint was unavailable for comment. The label is favoured by Suri Cruise, daughter of Hollywood couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, who at five has been ranked No 21 in a magazine poll to find the most stylish women in the world.
from The Sunday Times
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