Anti-fur lobby takes its protest into the nightclubs

'Take away your mink, and that string of pearls, what makes you think, that I'm one of those girls?' (from Guys and Dolls)

THIS was the message from the cat-walks in the early hours of yesterday morning at Heaven, in the West End of London. Half of the capital's drag queen community turned out in aid of the 'Fur is a Drag' campaign, writes Imogen Edwards-Jones.

As the music pumped out, Lilly Savage, Regina Fong, Lady Bunny, Kimberley and Dorina shimmied down the runway, spun and struck poses, modelling fur coats splattered in blood and decorated with traps and logos such as 'Greed Kills'.

'The fox will often gnaw off its paw as it tries to escape a trap,' announced the compere of the evening, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. 'And minks are often saved the boredom of living in the wild to be killed by an electric shock. Dorina doesn't care that her coat consists of hundred of chinchillas who have had their necks broken, do you Dorina?' Dorina gave the audience a twirl and skipped off again, dragging her chinchilla behind her.

Next came the actress and television presenter Margi Clarke, leading boys dressed in nothing but little white aprons bearing the slogan 'We'd rather go naked than wear fur.'

The Fur is a Drag campaign marks the launch of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) in Britain. The world's largest animal rights organisation with more than 400,000 members, it will, since the demise of Lynx, use Britain as a foothold for the rest of Europe. It plans to campaign in Paris and Milan.

Tasty Tim, who bought the idea for the show over from New York, said there had been a fur revival in Britain that needed to be quashed immediately: 'It's not so much the older generation, but the younger fashion students who are using fur in their shows. The campaign has got to be taken to the clubbing community and this is the best way of doing it, educating at a club level.'

(Photograph omitted)