Thousands of seals culled for fur
FIRST ON 7: A Sydney tycoon has defended killing thousands of seals to make his millions from his fur coat fashion range.
For the fashion-forward, this is one of the latest looks from this week's Istanbul trade show. Jackets for those with big budgets and a desire to stand out in a crowd.
Hatem Yavuz, an Australian fur magnate said to control more than 80 percent of the world's seal skin market, proudly shows off his range.
"This is a seal jacket with fox trimming. This would be six and a half to seven thousand."
"Python snake... Nordic harp seal."
Seal fur sales are restricted in Australia and the EU but not Turkey and most parts of Asia.
To global animal activists like Emma Hurst from Animal Liberation, he's public enemy number one.
"It's just hideous," she said.
"It's not a fashion statement whatsoever, it's just cold-hearted cruelty."
"[Yavuz] just seems to be a very cold-hearted person he's focused only on money and he has no sympathy or respect for animals whatsoever."
Yavuz has responded to criticism with a new provocative slogan - 'Fok you'.
In Turkish, the word for seal is Fok.
"I'm making a direct statement generally to the NGOs that have been protesting against me," Yavuz told 7News Sydney.
"So I just came up and wanted to react with a trademark of Fok You."
It's caused a storm of controversy in Turkey where the media has turned on the Aussie skin trader.
One Turkish newspaper this week proposed another slogan - 'F off Hatem Yavuz'.
While his seal harvests take place across the world from the ice flows of Canada to the beaches of Namibia, killing around two-hundred thousand seals a year, Yavuz says his garments are no more cruel than any other animal product.
"You think about it all these protests but they eat meat, everywhere is leather your car has got leather, your shoes have leather. Everyone has a piece of leather of something."
"It's the way the world has been running for thousands and thousands of years. Now that it is more universal and more public - it's just creating a bit of controversy."
Look in the mirror before they start arguing - look in the mirror."
