Boulder could ban sale of certain fur products

BOULDER — Fur coats on racks at Boulder outfitters could soon be a thing of the past. 

The Boulder City Council will introduce a measure Tuesday that would ban the sales and manufacture of certain fur products either by fiat or by a ballot measure put to city voters in November. 

The proposal, which carves out exemptions for certain types of fur products such as used clothing, Native American religious items, leather and cowhide, comes several months after a federal judge upheld a similar ban in San Francisco that was approved by local leaders in 2018 but went into effect only this year.

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Local municipal bans in California expanded to a statewide sales prohibition in 2019. That law is set to go into effect in 2023. 

Fur industry groups argued that the ban interfered with interstate commerce and was therefore unconstitutional, but U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg shot down their suit in March, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The California bans have been supported by animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States, which wrote in a 2020 blog that it’s “getting increasingly hard for those who are in the business of fur to justify the existence of an industry built on immense cruelty and the suffering of animals.”
According to a Boulder city memo, “Outlawing certain fur products might reduce pressure on certain fur-bearing species.”

One of Boulder’s options is to put the ban to a vote in November, and the other option is to amend city code to include the sale and manufacture of fur products on its list of  “miscellaneous offenses.”

Petitioners were able to collect nearly 3,500 signatures from residents who support bringing the measure to a vote, according to a city memo. 

The proposal will be introduced with a first reading during Tuesday’s council meeting followed by a public hearing at a later date. 

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