Posted on 12/18/2017 5:30:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
The owner of a vintage clothing store in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood entered a no contest plea Monday to charges that she was offering the fur of endangered animals for sale.
Cicely Hansen, owner of Decades of Fashion at 1653 Haight St., pleaded no contest in San Francisco Superior Court to two counts of illegal possession for sale of an endangered species and was sentenced to three years of probation.
Hansen was initially charged in March with nine counts after state Department of Fish and Wildlife investigators seized 150 items in a raid of the store, which advertises items ranging from Victorian times to the 1980s.
The seized items included clothing and accessories containing skins and body parts from a jaguar, ocelot, snow leopard and endangered sea turtle, among others.
Despite her plea today, Hansen remained indignant about the allegations that she was knowingly selling illegal furs, saying she felt the district attorney had "slandered" her.
"It's not like I'm a poacher," she said.
She said she was unaware of a 2016 state law that made the sale of all endangered animal parts illegal. Previously, items from before 1973 were considered acceptable, Hansen said.
However, a "disgruntled former employee" had tipped off state officials that she had items in the store that violated the new law, some of which Hansen said were her own personal property and not intended for sale.
She described herself as an animal rights activist who rescues horses and who abhors modern furs that come from inhumane fur farms.
"I don't even eat meat," Hansen said.
"What I actually am is a fashion historian," she said. "I've owned most of those pieces for 50 to 60 years, and some of them are more than 100 years old."
Max Szabo, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, said Hansen had a chance to fight the charges in court but had chosen to plead no contest.
He said it is important that people responsible for selling endangered species furs and parts be held accountable.
"These creatures don't have a second chance, and once they're gone, they're gone," he said.
Not long ago, I watched on YouTube the Christmas 1981 episode of The Price is Right and it had Bob Barker giving away a fur coat as one of the prizes, lol.
This is insane. Objects that were perfectly legal a few decades ago, now made into contraband.
Insanity.
On an electric guitar forum I participate in, there's talks about the risks of traveling overseas with vintage instruments that could possibly be confiscated upon your return due to being made from wood that now violates the the Obama administration's reinterpretation of the Lacey Act.
Yes, it is. That original 1873 Colt Frontier model revolver with ivory handled grips? The ivory makes it illegal in California.
It was a mistake to sell those beautiful coats in that area. You can buy old but beautifully maintained sable coats for $700 in my area but why would you? You’d be killed on the streets. A NJ friend of mine whose Holocaust survivor parents owned a fur store were firebombed in the 1990s by activists. How’s that for leaving one fascist country for another?
Sounds like ex post facto law to me.
Who would have imagined a market for illegal fur coats in Haight-Ashbury?
“Birthplace of the 1960s counterculture movement, Haight-Ashbury draws a lively, diverse crowd looking to soak up the historic hippie vibe.“
Irony can be so......ironic.
L
How about the young men with vintage bagpipes with ivory? Confiscated, and torn apart by “authorities” in Canada. They were there to enter a contest. I can only wonder if the guillotine of July 14th contained exotic woods and ivory.
>>”What I actually am is a fashion historian,” she said. “I’ve owned most of those pieces for 50 to 60 years, and some of them are more than 100 years old.”
Verboten, it’s not like dead baby parts harvested by abortionists.
I have a former hippy (near retirement) coworker who is an uber-lib and has no problems with such laws against old ivory being seized and destroyed from antique instruments.
Obama was for the law and the boy king god could do no wrong in his eyes.
If a person cannot be illegal, how can a coat be illegal?
I have a Mink Stole that my Late Mother owned.
She paid $1000 (if I remember correctly) for it back in the early 60’s and now it’s probably worth $150, if that.
Times have changed, but in CA all you have to do is live long enough and they will make you an Overnight Felon. Who knows, the Fur hanging in the Closet might get me on Death Row here.
Yes, undoubtedly you are a felon! I’ve said for years that we will all be felons before we get through this life. Just as it was under the Soviets.
The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws,
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.