AR-News: Boston Herald on Neiman Marcus/Fund for Animals Web Fight

[Political Animal]

http://business.bostonherald.com/technologyNews/view.bg?articleid=447

Boston Herald

Animal rights group takes fight to Web
By Greg Gatlin
Thursday, April 22, 2004

An animal-rights group accused Neiman Marcus Group
Inc. yesterday of trying to ``cyberbully'' it into
shutting down a ``Neiman Carcass'' Web site, which
blasts the high-end retailer for selling furs. 
 
     The Fund for Animals' neimancarcass.com site
claims the retailer supports ``a morally bankrupt and
inherently violent industry'' and contributes to the
suffering and death of millions of animals each year
by selling fur. The site also displays photographs of
animals killed for fur, information about anti-fur
campaigns and links to other Web sites. 
 
     Neiman Marcus claims the Web site is deliberately
and confusingly similar to the retailer's famous name,
and is being used to tarnish it. It filed a complaint
with the National Arbitration Forum, which resolves
domain name disputes, in a bid to wrest control of the
neimancarcass.com, neimancarcass.net, and
neimancarcass.org names from the animal rights group. 
 
     The Fund for Animals counters that its carcass
site is protected speech because it uses parody and
satire to raise awareness about animal-rights issues. 
 
     ``People are not going to be looking up Neiman
Marcus online and be confused if they stumble across
the site of Neiman Carcass,'' said Michael Markarian,
president of The Fund for Animals. 
 
     Neiman Marcus also claims the carcass site
competes with Neiman's business by linking to other
sites that sell merchandise. 
 
     Markarian said the carcass site doesn't ask
people not to shop at Neiman, but instead asks them to
express their views about animal rights to the
company. 
 
      ``The main ingredient in a fur coat is animal
cruelty,'' he said. ``These animals are raised in
intensive confinement in fur factories. They're killed
through gruesome methods. It's a grotesque cruelty,
and it's completely unnecessary because there are so
many elegant alternatives to fur, including faux fur,
which Neiman Marcus sells.'' 
 
     Neiman declined comment. 
 
      
 
     



	
		
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