Chicago fur ban set to face City Council vote
Aldermen are set to vote Wednesday on an ordinance that would ban the sale of new fur products in Chicago.
The ordinance is an effort to fight animal cruelty, sponsor Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, said. But opponents say it will close historic family-owned businesses and is a government overreach.
Several speakers during public testimony at the beginning of the council meeting urged aldermen to pass the ban, saying animals are tortured in order to collect furs.
The measure breezed through a first vote in the License and Consumer Protection Committee, but could face tougher scrutiny Wednesday as the City Council's Black Caucus ramped up a fight to strike it down.
Ald. Matt O'Shea, 19th, joined Black Caucus chair Stephanie Coleman and a group of Black pastors at a news conference before the Wednesday meeting to argue the vote is 'about personal choice.'
'Are we going to ban leather next? Are we going to ban beef? Are we going to put Ronald McDonald out of a job?' O'Shea said. 'I can't believe we're here today, that this is actually going to come to a vote at this time in our city. We need to be focused on public safety, on public health, on our schools, on attracting business, on supporting business.'
Michael K. Harris Jr., government manager for the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, predicted the ordinance would ban the sale of shearling and sheepskin products, including the popular Ugg boots. Lopez told the Tribune he does not believe the ordinance would ban such products and is not intended to.
The ordinance, set to go into effect one year after passage, allows the sale of used fur products and makes clear exceptions for leather, cowhide and deerskin products. It also makes exceptions to allow the sale of secondhand fur products, as well as new fur products used in religious and cultural practices.
Mayor Brandon Johnson appears to have stayed out of the debate over fur products, even as many Black aldermen rally around Beverly furrier Island Furs. The store is one of three Black-owned furriers in the country, O'Shea said.
Gerard Brown, who has owned Island Furs for three decades, said the ban would put his store out of business.
'I can understand if people don't want to wear my product. That's okay, that's what makes my country, freedom of speech, so freedom of choice,' Brown said. 'My creativity will stop because they've dictated to me how I should create my fashion.'
Other issues in the city deserve more attention, argued Walter Turner, pastor of South Shore's New Spiritual Light Missionary Baptist Church. Turner painted the ordinance as an overstep harming Black Chicago.
'We have a whole lot of other serious issues going on in our communities. Our babies are being shot every day. We need to deal with our school system,' he said. 'This is about shutting down businesses that have been a staple.'
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