Everybody loves a wookie.

• Author: Sair, Andrew
• Position: The Economy According to Safir - Column

Everybody loves a wookie

THE NON-RESIDENT PERCEPTION OF the average Alaskan is a hairy fellow in a wolf-trimmed parka, seal-skin boots, fleece-lined long johns and mink earmuffs. Kind of a bear with a haircut. I hate to be the one to say it, but the image has got to change. Fur is under fire.

Honest. I got it straight from a reliable source - USA Today. (Everyone knows that's an in-depth newspaper.) There it was in black, blue and orange, complete with a little graph. Item: Sometime this month, no trendier city than Aspen, Colo., will vote on whether to turn itself into a "fur free" zone, with nothing but ecologically sound fibers for sale within town limits.

Don't think the Rocky Mountain rich thought this up on their own, though. If the truth be known, animal protesters have been pounding the shoe leather for years now in an annual outing known as Fur Free Friday. When the event was held last November, 3,500 of them stomped down New York's Fifth Avenue threatening to skin any pelt peddler in the Big Apple alive. (It was enough to raise my hackles, I'll tell you!)

Fortunately, furriers are not going to fold without a fight. Their latest PR position is that animal rights activists care more for rats than AIDS victims and are spiking the chances for world peace by demonstrating against Russian exports. They also have started their own envelope-stuffing campaign of sorts. With every mink coat purchased in 1990, customers will not only be receiving a monogrammed lining, but also a little, tastefully bound, leather book entitled It's No Skin Off Your Back!

"It's basically a pro-choice thing," says an industry spokesperson. "Fur-owning females shouldn't be easy prey for every militant vegetarian in nauga-hyde. Flaunt a fur and you really feel on top of the food chain!"

Basically, I have to agree. What is a sable anyway, but a well-dressed rodent? Besides, this...