July 6, 1963 - An appeal to American women to cease buying leopard skin coats has been made by the National Audubon Society. A recent craze for the fur has stimulated a booming black market in leopard pelts that threatens doom to the animals, according to the society’s president, Carl Buchheister. The leopard is protected by law in most African nations, but poaching has gotten so out of hand that the animal is being killed at a rate 80% faster than its capacity to reproduce, he said. “Is today’s lady so insensitive and such a slave to fashion that she would knowingly be a party to the extermination of one of nature’s most magnificent creatures?” the Audubon president asked in a recent editorial. Fine African leopard coats, now costing from $5,000 to $10,000, have been coveted for the last 10 years. They became even more popular after Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy bought one two years ago. However, a leading furrier said their popularity had lessened a little “now that leopard is reproduced in everything from nylon nightgowns to $18 raincoats.”
