Animal rights activists stage naked protest in Barcelona

Baring all in chilly weather, animal rights activists staged a naked protest Saturday in northeastern Barcelona to denounce the torture and slaying of animals to make fur coats.

Representing the number of minks it takes on average to make a fur coat, the 70 men and women lay down, curled up on the pavement outside Barcelona city hall.

The protest, staged by AnimaNaturalis and PETA international animal rights groups, was watched by several dozen passers-by.

In a statement, AnimaNaturalis said millions of animals were captured, tortured and killed each year to make fur coats. In Spain alone, 26 million animals _ among them rabbits, foxes, minks and lambs _ were killed in 2003 to make coats, the group said.

"If people could see the animals in fur farms, they would never use a fur coat," AnimaNaturalis president Leonora Esquivel, said in the statement. "The look on those animals' faces stays in your mind, a look that says: 'why?", AP reported.

V.A.