der" may attract attention, but it has just as much potential to turn people off. The fur industry is trying its hardest to paint groups like COK as a radical fringe; one FICA press release said, "the more bizarre the activists look, the better we look -- and what they had outside were freaks." COK's choice of words might just be playing right into the other side's hands. Environmentalists would appear to be natural allies of animal rights groups; after all, they both profess concern for the Earth's varied inhabitants and passionately organize to protect other-than-human species. But while animal advocates generally call themselves environmentalists, the reverse is not true. Jim Motavalli writes that "environmentalists tend to see the animal movement as hysterical, shrill and one note.' They're often embarrassed by the lab raids, the emotional picketing and the high-pitched hyperbole." If the rhetoric of groups like COK alienates groups with a natural affinity for animal issues, how can it change the mind of a 55 year old wealthy white woman who's always loved the look and feel of a fur coat? Although the White House simply stood silently in response to COK's sidewalk activities, the scene was quite different when Compassion Over Killing picketed Miller's Furs in early April. Slightly less people turned out, but the makeup of the crowd was similar to the one at the Pennsylvania Avenue protest; many of the faces were the same at both events. However, a certain contrast was clear; this protest was targeting a finite business operation, while the White House demonstration seemed to address the entire United States legal system as well as foreign policy. COK's call for the release of ALF members convicted of various felonies had an air of futility about it, as the activists claimed the right to break all sorts of U.S. laws in the name of their cause. The Miller's Fur protest was more of an even fight. This time the activists seemed more pow...
