(28/11/2003) Press Statement: Wildlife Programme Not Appropriate

On Wednesday 15 October 2003 a programme called ‘Beauty and the Beast’ was broadcast on BBC 2 as part of the Wildlife on Two series. The programme featured undercover filming in a fur shop in Greece where allegedly an Ocelot coat was being sold.

The British Fur Trade Association (BFTA) would like to make it clear that members of the international fur trade do not handle any endangered species and that we completely condemn any illegal trade in these protected species. The International Fur Trade Federation (IFTF) is a voting member of the World Conservation Union and has been a supporter of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) since its inception.

After doing some research the BFTA found out that the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ programme was actually made in 1990 and is obviously not an accurate reflection of today’s fur trade. This was not made clear to the viewer and we feel that the programme was misleading.

The BFTA wrote to the BBC airing our views.

A reply was received from the BBC that said: "You are correct in stating the film content was dated and should not have been broadcast… the programme was inadvertently broadcast. The programme has now been removed from the repeats list and we have put in place a more secure notification to the library that this programme should not be broadcast in the future."

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Issued by the British Fur Trade Association.
Press contact: Andrea Martin
e-mail press@britishfur.co.uk