Never one to shy away from controversy, PETA US has offered to pay Aretha Franklin’s $19,000 home foreclosure tax bill… on the condition that she ditches the fur for good and donates her unwanted furs to PETA US like Mariah Carey and Kim Cattrall have done in the past. I think that’s a pretty fair deal, don’t you?

In the most recent correspondence with the ‘Queen of Soul’, Ingrid Newkirk tells Aretha all about the fur trade, sparing no detail too gruesome in the hope that she will come to her senses and stop paying for the suffering and death of animals for ‘fashion’.

I love the bit that says: “Our offer is a win-win situation: You get to keep your home and animals get to keep their lives. We are rooting for you to please give animals the R-E-S-P-E-C-T that they deserve by giving up fur.” I’ll let you know if she responds!

Aretha image: Ecorazzi / Creative Commons

No doubt you will have seen the photos of Aretha Franklin wearing the huge fur coat at the Grammy Awards last week, as she got in a huff about Beyoncé’s ‘Tina Turner is the Queen’ comment.

Now, who could let an opportunity like this slip? Not PETA US Vice President Dan Mathews, who sent Aretha a note that I just couldn’t resist sharing with you:

Dear Aretha,

Music lovers may think of you as a “queen,” but to animal lovers you are a court jester. I’m sorry, Aretha, but your furs make you look like a clown. Why not shed the old fashioned look that adds pounds to your frame and detracts from your beautiful voice? Won’t you donate your furs to the poor as “queen of compassion,” Mariah Carey, did? You’ll get a tax credit for the donation and we at PETA will all sing your praises.

Dan Mathews
VP, PETA

I love The PETA Files’ comment on Aretha’s get-up – “She looks like a walrus in a cat costume.” Mee-ow!

Image: That’s Not Hot / Creative Commons