Letter to the Editor:
For Valentine's Day gifts, don't visit Victoria's Secret
Published Feb. 14, 2006
This Valentine's Day, choose a store other than Victoria's Secret for your last-minute shopping.
Victoria's Secret publishes 395 million catalogs a year, many of which are never read and are thrown away. The company receives 25 percent of their paper from the endangered Boreal Forest in Canada, one of the world's largest remaining ecosystems. The woodland caribou population has declined 20 percent over the past 20 years due to continuous logging, and an estimated 85,000 migratory bird nests have been destroyed in Ontario in just one year. The Boreal is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems remaining in North America and is home to thousands of animal species, including wolves, cougars and wolverines.
Monday at Speaker's Circle, Forest Ethics and the Animal Liberation League held a demonstration against Victoria's Secret's harmful practices toward the environment.
Forest Ethics, an international environment group, initiated the Victoria's Dirty Secret campaign (www.victoriasdirtysecret.net). The campaign encourages Victoria's Secret to end logging from Canada's Boreal Forest and other endangered habitats. The campaign also encourages the company to maximize its catalog's recycled content. Victoria's Secret catalogs contain little post-consumer recycled content. If you are a fan of the company's clothing, help us let them know their cataloging practices are unacceptable.
Contact Forest Ethics representatives Brittany Paris (bspf29@mizzou.edu) or me (sec9q3@mizzou.edu) if you're interested in joining our campaign.