Lady Gaga may be celebrity fur wearing public enemy #1 for PETA.
Gaga didn’t make any vegetarian, vegan, or even PETA friends when she wore a meat dress to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Yes, the dress was made of raw meat – beef to be exact. It certainly stood out – something difficult to do at any MTV awards show since fashion seems to be a free-for-all. Even TIME gave her the top fashion statement of 2010.
The “statement” Gaga was trying to make with her dress, designed by Franc Fernandez, was that people should fight for what they believe in. Gaga cited her distaste for the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy, which has since been rescinded.
PETA condemned Gaga for wearing the dress, issuing a statement that read, “Wearing a dress made from cuts of dead cows is offensive enough to bring comment, but someone should whisper in her ear that more people are upset by butchery than are impressed by it.”
Now Gaga’s riled up PETA again, this time for wearing animal pelts and lots of them. The photo of Gaga can be seen here at Entertainment Weekly.
PETA issued an open letter to Gaga, calling her a “turncoat” (she once wore an outfit made of Kermit the Frogs rather than fur) and comparing her to “the mindless Kim Kardashian.” Yikes!
But, Gaga didn’t take it lying down. She issued a statement today to her fans (affectionately known as Little Monsters) which said in part that she deeply cared about her fans but she does not “support violent, abusive, and childish campaigns for ANY CAUSE.”’
She went on to say that while she respects animal rights, “I am choosing not to comment on whether or not the furs I purchase are faux fur-pile or real because I would think it hypercritical not to acknowledge the python, ostrich, cow hide, leather, lamb, alligator, ‘Kermit’ and not to mention meat, that I have already worn.”
Gaga hopes her statement will put an end to what she calls “Furgate,” but I doubt PETA will go down that easily.