Claudia Schiffer with torture-bred cat at film premiere
At the London film premiere of “Argylle”, Claudia Schiffer presented her tomcat Chip in a backpack on the red carpet on Wednesday.
Former supermodel Claudia Schiffer (53) appeared at a film premiere in London with an unusual companion — she had a cat in her backpack.
Chip is a Scottish Fold tomcat — a breed of cat that suffers from severe and very painful torture-breeding characteristics.
Schiffer attended the premiere of the film «Argylle», whose director Matthew Vaughn she is married to. The cat belongs to her family, as Schiffer told the television channel Sky News. The animal also appears in the spy film, playing the cat Alfie.
Originally, a different cat had been planned for the role, but her husband then said the cat was a terrible actor, Schiffer joked on the red carpet. He then said to her daughter Clementine: «Can I use your cat?» Her daughter had wanted a cat because she had seen one with music star Taylor Swift. «And then we gave her the cat as a surprise.» Now it had ended up in the film. «And since then the cat has become a big film star.»
The negative comments from her followers and animal welfare advocates followed swiftly. “The things people do for money and press coverage! Poor cat”, “It is sad that even today a cinema film has been made featuring this severely ill breed. This will only lead to even more unsuspecting people getting a Scottish Fold,” the commenters expressed their outrage.
Cats have no place on a red carpet. Locking an animal in a small backpack for the sake of attention is inconsiderate and causes enormous stress for the cat. Claudia Schiffer's irresponsible behavior is rightly being criticized. Furthermore, we condemn any form of advertising for Scottish Fold cats. These torture-bred animals suffer from a painful and incurable cartilage disease, which typically results in the cats having to be euthanized prematurely due to their suffering. With her appearance, Claudia Schiffer not only subjected her animal companion to unnecessary suffering, but also normalized and popularized torture breeding in the public eye. We urge all cat lovers to adopt animals exclusively from shelters and only after careful consideration, and not to support the breeding of animals.
Monic Moll, Expert Advisor for Animal Companions at PETA Deutschland e.V.
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