We’re 90 percent sure the answer is ‘No.’ But let’s back up.

On the Thursday before inauguration weekend, a PETA press release announced:

Under a sign reading, “Free Fur Coats,” PETA will hand out dozens of fur coats — donated by those who have moved on to cruelty-free garments — to homeless people in Washington, D.C.’s Farragut Square.

Advertising the fact that people have donated furs to PETA was presumably one of the goals here. But the main message is that wearing fur is only okay if one is homeless.

Giving fur coats away to homeless people in D.C. on one of the coldest days of the year struck us as a great idea. However, we can’t tell you how hard it was/is to wrap our heads around the fact that this is PETA. Doesn’t PETA think that fur on anyoneperpetuates the notion that it’s okay to wear? How would they know the recipients didn’t take the coat straight to the pawn shop? Was PETA taking advantage of others’ hardship for its own publicity?

There were just too many questions. So we went to check it out. Story after the jump.

When we arrived about 15 minutes after the start time, we were surprised to see that there were only a few reporters and curious bystanders in Farragut Square.

 

The few people sitting in the square that looked homeless were sans coats. They weren’t anywhere near the table. And there were no homeless people anywhere in the vicinity wearing a fur coat. This was very strange because when you live in a city, you come to recognize the homeless people in your area. They don’t move from place to place very quickly. They stick around the same spot for a while, especially if there’s something going on. Were there no takers?

We asked the PETA people. They politely informed us that they had given away “a few” coats already. How many? They weren’t sure. One of the two reps present said they came with 50.

We were bizarrely fixated on the scenario that non-homeless people would ask for coats and be rejected, so we asked them about that. PETA reps said no one did.

A few (non-homeless) people came by while we were watching and sifted through the coats. But they must not have been homeless because no one asked for one. They said PETA was doing a wonderful, wonderful thing.

 

But we had yet to see anyone walk away with a fur coat.

One of the PETA people had told us that a group of women were on their way from a local homeless shelter. Photo op! But they were stuck in traffic. This is the point of the story when we really wish our faces weren’t about to freeze off. We saw a Starbucks across the street and decided to watch from there. We did not realize at the time that this giveaway was only an hour long.

Time spent in Starbucks was approximately 15 minutes. We could see the table of coats from where we were sitting, but buses and cars sometimes blocked our view.

After we had warmed up, we went back to the table. Cameras were gone and PETA people were packing up. Where were the homeless ladies??

“Oh, you missed them,” said PETA lady. “It happened really fast.”

“That’s strange,” I said. “We were just right across the street.” We lamented the missed photo op.

She said they were going to drop the rest of the coats off at the shelter since one of the “two vans” got stuck in traffic. We thought it was nice of her to offer to meet us there in an hour to take photos. We told her we may not be able to make it, but would give her a call. The rep, Ashley Byrne, gave us her card.

We called about an hour later. No answer. So we left a message asking her to call us back for fact-checking purposes. We wanted to call the shelter and see if PETA reallydropped off any fur coats there.

She never returned our call.

 

 

 

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