Debenham's, once one of Britain's biggest fur retailers, decided this year never to sell fur coats again. Several Army and Navy fur departments have closed, as have old-established shops such as Brahams of Reading, Barkers of Colwyn Bay and Sefton Marks of Solihull. Two major fur manufacturing firms, Koebel and George Smith, have folded.
Why are we no longer buying furs? Is it because of changing fashion, or the campaigns of the anti-fur societies?
Mark Glover, campaigns director of Lynx, the organization responsible for the famous "dumb animal" poster showing a fur coat trailing blood, and also the anti-trapping cinema film made by David Bailey, has no doubt that the lack of demand for furs is mainly due to its campaigns but he believes the recent fire bomb attacks on department stores, which have been linked to the Animal Liberation Front, are deplorable.
He says: "They don't need to use these tactics. They are counter-productive. Three different opinion polls have already confirmed that more than 70 per cent of British people would not now wear a fur coat.
"The fur trade has always promoted a glamorous image, but since our campaign began three years ago, the public have been given the facts. Every single fur coat is produced by animal cruelty. You can't make a fur coat without cruelty."
Yvonne Paul, who runs a successful modelling agency, decided five years ago that no girl on her books would model a fur coat. "I have lost bookings because of this policy," she says. "But I don't care. I am totally against fur coats, and anybody who rings me up for a fur booking will get an earful. Many other model agencies now also feel strongly, and just about all the top models will not wear a fur coat whatever they are paid."
One fur-coat owner now too embarrassed to wear her animal skin is Marcelle D'Argy Smith, deputy editor of Cosmopolitan. This magazine, along with British Elle and She, now refuses to feature fur coats in any way.
"I own a fur coat which I bought in New York, and at 15 degrees below freezing in winter you need one," D'Argy Smith says. "But now it stays in storage and I wouldn't be seen dead in it, even though I'm not particularly an animal liberationist. Here, all the staff recoil from running any feature or ad which involves a fur coat."
American Cosmopolitan is still fur-minded it ran an article this year on "My First Mink", and French Elle has no scruples about fur features. Decisions as to whether to feature fur are largely up to individual editors.
Joan Chaumeton, who has been in the fur trade for more than 23 years and is a consultant to Saga, the world's biggest producers of ranched mink and fox, is in no doubt that the British lack of interest in fur is in large part due to the anti-fur campaigners.
She says: "To my mind, the stores are giving in to terrorism and are made to feel either guilty or terrified for selling furs. Most of the stores won't admit that it's because of the anti-fur people, but I believe this must be the case.
"The David Bailey film has had a momentous effect, so that now hardly any fashion editors will ever show furs."
Not all British magazines have taken a policy decision not to feature furs. Vogue and Harpers&Queen still take fur ads, although Vogue says that it now only accepts fur which has been ranch-raised rather than trapped. "We were the first magazine in the world to make this distinction," it says. Harpers says that fur ads have become less frequent over the past few years. Paula Piercey, advertisement director for Harpers, adds: "Many department stores have suffered from the anti-fur people, who think it's perfectly all right to throw fire bombs at people, and endanger human life. Stores have been attacked so often and lives threatened, that now they are frightened to sell fur."
Debenham's refused to confirm that its policy of not selling fur coats was in any way caused by virulent anti-fur campaigns directed at its stores. Spokeswoman Patricia Saxby says: "Over the past three years, public demand has declined to such an extent that running fur departments was no longer profitable. We do continue to sell fake furs."
Furrier Michael Hockley, whose family has been in the trade for three generations, says: "The past few years have been disastrous, but I think there will always be a demand at the better end of the market. We have just opened a new fur shop in Bond Street, and it's doing really well."
"World-wide, the fur trade is expanding," Lynx's Michael Glover says. "Retail sales in America are topping $2 billion a year, and one fur company has a contract with Dynasty. We have had a huge impact in Britain, but furs continue to sell in other countries. We shan't be happy until there are no fur coats in existence anywhere."
