by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Gone are the days when fur wearers would have to maintain a watchful eye against the threat of animal rights activists dousing them with paint. "That's not a practice our group has ever done or endorsed," says Regina Flores of Montreal-based Global Action Network. But she confesses that the widely publicized publicity stunt from another time and place didn't hurt their cause. "It's not necessarily the way we've chosen to go, but it led a lot of people out there to decide not to wear a fur coat, as it's widely considered taboo."

These days, some anti-fur campaigners are winning minds through splattering paint on paper, not clothing. For the third consecutive year, worldwide anti-fur groups have teamed up to award 5,000 euros to whoever designs the most persuasive anti-fur poster conceivable. The third annual award was recently handed out to Kitchener, Ontario, student Michael Blain, who was awarded a trip to Budapest and the dough for his poster of a fur clothing tag sporting a label that reads, "100% trapped, tortured and slaughtered fox trim. Will you recognize the truth?"

Locally, the animal rights gang have their own set of stunts. "We use other tactics, including more creative and artistic street-type events," says Flores. "For example, Tuesday nights one of us walks around Ste-Catherine near our headquarters on Bleury with a flat TV worn around the neck showing video footage of animals being trapped. Another thing we were planning was to have our own fashion police give tickets to fur wearers for cruelty."

But the pressure hasn't necessarily diminished the usage of furs. Fur trims - fur scarves and other smaller, less expensive fur accessories - have replaced the large coats as the apparel of choice. "It's no longer the granny with the big long coat, it's people who are misled to think that it's fake fur on their coats and jackets," when it's actually real fur, says Flores.

PR savvy

Their longstanding nemesis, the Fur Council of Canada, concurs. "Fur trim is one of the strongest trends in fashion now, they're certainly right about that," says Alan Herscovici, executive vice-president of the Fur Council. "The animal rights groups are upset about that. They thought fur was gone and they had killed the fur industry, and yes, it declined for a lot of years with the overall economy. But what has them upset and surprised is seeing how strong it's coming back. And it's not just for the rich anymore. Fur is very much democratized and has a broader appeal."

Thus the war over fur has heightened and the new anti-fur campaign features tactics such as a vegan potluck dinner (Sunday, Nov. 28, 6 p.m. at 372 Ste-Catherine W., #30, call 939-5525) and the third annual poster contest that included the participation of what Flores reports to be 250 schools, mostly art and design colleges, in 20 countries. "A lot of schools are picking it up and including it as a required credit assignment for their courses. Participants consider it a great opportunity to apply their skills and the judges we select are usually quite prestigious and can offer opportunities to get their artwork exposed," she says.

Herscovici, who alternately refers to the animal rights groups as "right-wing eco-fascists" and "politically correct hate groups," concedes that the activists have been "very good at knowing how to play the media. They go out and chant in front of a fur store playing on the fact that those who know enough to reply to their charges are out in the bush. Journalists send a camera because confrontation is news, but slowly the fur trade is telling their side of the story and you're not seeing the same demos anymore. People are asking a few of the right questions and it's not so much fun for them to organize these anymore."

For the activists, rejecting fur is just the beginning of a larger outlook they want to peddle.

"It's a way to take the first step and maybe you then look into vegetarianism, or riding your bike instead of driving your car," says Flores. "It's just a way to make you feel comfortable with yourself about something positive you could do and other ways to change your lifestyle."