Letter: Wearing fur and freedom of choice do not go hand in hand

Janet Reger's foolish daughter Alica calls animal defenders "a squalid mob of losers" ("Stars come out against Vogue `fur hag' Wintour", 12 January). If you want squalid, how about considering just how animals are misused and tortured for the "fashion" trade. Inter alia, blocks of steel are placed in the icy wastes of northern Canada and painted with a sweet substance to entice an animal to take a lick. Their tongues promptly freeze. The animal is held there, often for weeks, until the fur-trapper returns. Squalid? Alica, there's nothing more squalid than you, your mother and the mindless US Vogue editor, Anna Wintour, for sullying the potential role of the human species as a powerful defender of all things beautiful - and alive - in this astonishing world.

Lesley Abdela