Dear Supporters, I received a response for the Sunday Times regarding our anti-fur petition. Unfortunately it has not been particularly satisfactory as Jackie Annesley (Style magazine editor) does not as yet pledge to keep the Sunday Times Style magazine fur free. Therefore I have sent a counter response to her to re-emphasise that the readers of the Sunday Times will not tolerate the promotion of real fur. Thank you all for your continued support. Anne Sunday Times reply: Dear Anne, Many thanks for your email about your change.org petition and apologies for the delay in getting back to you. We certainly acknowledge your opinions and concerns. We do not feature fur regularly in Style - your examples are from 2014 and one opinion piece by AA Gill almost a year ago, but we believe that readers' attitudes to fur are personal and it seems fair to reserve the right to make our own editorial judgements about what we feature. Kind regards Jackie Annesley Editor Sunday Times Style 1 London Bridge St SE1 9GF My counter reply: Dear Jackie, Thank you for your reply and for taking the time to respond. Just to give you an update on the petition, we are now at over 57,000 signatures with 504 pages of comments which I have attached in a separate email for your reference. In response to your claim that the Sunday Times Style does not feature fur “regularly” - it was regular enough to come to my attention over and above any other Sunday supplement magazine or fashion magazine. I used to be a avid reader of the Sunday Times, and I particularly enjoyed the Style magazine I must say, but switched allegiance when I was concerned that it did indeed feature fur on its fashion pages more times than I would have liked. My parents still (for the moment) buy the Sunday Times and so I can see that fur continues to be featured in recent times. In fact when I visited them at Easter I was browsing the Style magazine and saw a Fendi fox fur handbag featured. I can’t say what exact date that issue was but it would have been roughly a couple of weeks before Easter as they tend to keep their newspapers for a little while. This concern is what fuelled my petition. And, reading through the comments which supporters of the campaign have made, many others who are currently readers of the Sunday Times are also concerned about this return to the wearing and (more importantly from your point of view) the promotion of real fur. If you read their comments you will see that many are saddened and disappointed by the Sunday Times and some are prepared to boycott the Sunday Times while you continue to feature real fur: “My wife and I buy both The Times and Sunday Times. However, our concern for animal welfare certainly outweighs our loyalty to any newspaper. We had already noticed, and been disturbed by, the trend towards including more and more fur in your publications. Therefore, we will be hoping for a favourable response from you, as Editors, to this request that you reconsider and reverse your policy regarding featuring fur as acceptable and “fun”. If the editorial stance regarding this issue proves implacable, we will certainly choose to read a different Sunday paper in future, since we would prefer not to support the condoning of animal cruelty.” Alan Dorman, Exmouth, UK “I’m really shocked by this petition. I had thought we had long got over this disgusting trend. I still remember the very vivid ad several years ago now: it takes hundreds of dumb animals to make a fur coat but only one dumb animal to wear it. And I guess that i am most shocked (and incredibly disgusted) that a reputable newspaper such as the Sunday Times would be dumb enough to promote real fur. Come on Sunday Times. Pull your socks up.” Jo Clark, East Hendred, UK “Sunday Times - publish a story about the cruelty and suffering behind fur. You have the platform to do that.” Julia Robinson, Rugby, UK “Fur farming is brutal and unnecessary and it is a total disgrace that any responsible newspaper should be encouraging it in any way. I had thought that we had got over this kind of thing but the Sunday Times is encouraging the revival of this ghastly cruelty. Please act in the best traditions of journalism and campaign against fur farming rather than pandering to the heartless producers and wearers of real fur.” Jane Napier, Kerry, UK “I’m a veterinary surgeon and I’m well aware of the unnecessary cruelty involved in the fur trade and disturbed how detached people are from the process by which fur ends up in their clothing.” Nigel Griffiths, Hebden Bridge, UK “I thought we were progressing in this field of not wearing fur. I think it is reprehensible that the Sunday Times in particular is taking this retrograde step.” Peter and Angela Brooke, Llanfechell, UK “Cruelty is cruelty regardless of how you package it. There is nothing in the least stylish about suffering and pain.” Victoria Daniels, Brighton, UK “It is a disgrace in this day and age that real fur is even allowed to be used in so called fashionable clothing and the Sunday Times Style magazine should be ashamed to endorse the use of it in their magazine. I shall not be buying the Sunday Times from now on, neither shall a large number of people I have told about it.” Debra Britton, Burton upon Trent, UK “Of the hypocrisy of the Sunday Times, one week campaigning against angora farms, the next featuring fur as a fun fashion item. I’ve been meaning to cancel my subscription for ages, now I will.” Tracy Boyle, London, UK “Will most definitely stop buying the Sunday Times while it continues.” Emily-Ann Deal, Canterbury, UK “There is so much cruelty behind fur. In the mink or fox farms in the West or the horrific dog abattoirs in China. Please don’t show it in the Sunday Times.” Joanne Humphreys, London, UK “I stopped buying the Times on Sunday because it increasingly featured fur in the Style magazine.” Michaela Eavis, Hove, UK “I’m signing because I am a Sunday Times regular reader and am appalled at the ongoing creep of fur back into the world promoted by the Sunday Times and others.” Brenda Ellis, Martock, UK “Please take a stand against this brutality, don’t consider that animals bred in fur ‘farms’ are making fur in fashion acceptable. Read the details of how the animals are treated, many countries supplying fur have no animal welfare legislation, or if they do it is token and ignored. There is no place in civilised society for this return to fur in fashion. Please consider this matter carefully and picture the stages of cruelty an animal has to endure before it is slaughtered for its own skin. Society is appalled at clothes being produced via child labour, slave labour, why is this considered acceptable? Make the Sunday Times strong and admirable, announce you are taking a stand against fur.” Shelagh Smith, Bishop’s Stortford, UK Can a publication afford to lose potentially 57,000 readers each week over an issue which, from your point of view, isn’t really going to make a big difference to the integrity of the magazine other than to appease your readers who are anti-fur? Are “pro-fur” readers (if they exist) going to be up in arms if they don’t get their fix of fur…? I don’t think so. The only readers it will mean anything to are those who are nauseated by the fur industry and don’t want to see it supported when we open our Sunday newspaper. Other Sunday newspapers such as the Observer have an anti fur policy. Maybe they realise that public opinion is strongly against real fur or maybe it is the personal opinion of the fashion editor. Either way, if you are still under the impression that your readers would like to see real fur on the pages of the Sunday Times then perhaps you might consider doing an opinion poll to see what their personal views are on this matter. You also make the point that you are entirely within your rights to choose what you wish to feature. Of course you are - it’s your magazine. However surely people who are interested in fashion and style are increasingly moving away from large, corporate, very traditional and very "uniform" brands such as Fendi in search of the small, exciting, exclusive and innovative new designers turning out individualistic products that really seem to say something about 21st Century life and living, not including the abject abuse of animals for the sake of fashion. Public opinion is now for cutting edge and sustainable man-made and natural fabrics and fashion, not cruelty. The Sunday Times Style is in the perfect position to take a stand for the compassionate and ethical choice. Surely highlighting the products of an unnecessarily cruel fur industry no longer has a place in a 21st Century fashion magazine. Myself and the other 57,000 supporters of this campaign would love to see the Sunday Times Style magazine recognise the cruelty of real fur and pledge to keep it off your fashion pages. As one of the commentaries stated: “Society is appalled at clothes being produced via child labour, slave labour, why is this considered acceptable? Make the Sunday Times strong and admirable, announce you are taking a stand against fur.” Please Jackie can you let me know what your response is to this request so I can feed it back to everyone. We do hope you will reconsider the Style’s policy on real fur and pledge to adopt an anti-fur policy. Kind Regards, Anne