Scenes From the Bloody Protest at the Miss Florida Teen USA Pageant

Tara NieuwesteegWomen wore mangled fur and prom gowns covered in (fake) blood. People wrapped themselves in yellow caution tape. One woman dressed as the Grim Reaper. They held signs telling teenaged girls and their families as they entered the Miss Florida Teen USA pageant that they had blood on their...

By Michael J. Mooney

October 4, 2010

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Women wore mangled fur and prom gowns covered in (fake) blood. People wrapped themselves in yellow caution tape. One woman dressed as the Grim Reaper. They held signs telling teenaged girls and their families as they entered the Miss Florida Teen USA pageant that they had blood on their hands. All this, organized by the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, was to protest the fur "prizes" awarded to young winners of the beauty pageant.

The furs come from the Fur Information Council of America, an official sponsor of Miss Florida Teen USA, which took place yesterday at the Broward Community College campus in Davie. The animal-rights group has asked the pageant and its parent company, Tel-Air Interests, Inc., to drop its relationship with FICA.

Local activists have organized similar protests in the past.

"Tel-Air's support of this barbaric trade is unacceptable and brings shame to the pageant, as well as the participants," Don Anthony, ARFF's communications director, said in a statement. "With many modern and cruelty-free prize options available, how could the skins of dead animals ever be considered a prize?"

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