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Fur flies at weekly protests

Animal-rights rallies strain ties between cops, business owners

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Mar 28, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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Portland Police Bureau Central Precinct Cmdr. Dave Benson has suggested that the Schumacher Fur & Outerwear Co. move out of downtown because of weekly animal rights protests at its Southwest Eighth Avenue and Morrison Street store.

In a March 23 e-mail to Commissioner Randy Leonard, Benson said that the store owned by Gregg and Linda Schumacher may be better suited for a suburban mall, such as Bridgeport Village in Tualatin.

“Actually, one of the solutions is for them to relocate to a boutique type of mall (Bridgeport Village). In that setting the owners will probably be able to lawfully control the protests inside the mall and keep it outside on the sidewalk. The protesters would quickly lose interest. The Schumachers won’t like that solution, either, but they may not have much of a choice,” Benson wrote in an e-mail.

Since last November, dozens of demonstrators have been staging noisy protests outside the store every Saturday afternoon. The goal is to drive the store out of business, says regular participant Matt Rossell, Northwest outreach coordinator of In Defense of Animals, a national animal rights organization.

“Portland is a city with a love of animals. It has no business having a full-scale fur salon here,” Rossell said.

Leonard asked Benson for information about the protests after receiving an earlier e-mail from Linda Schumacher accusing the protesters of repeatedly breaking the law by threatening to kill her and Gregg, assaulting their employees and blocking access to their store.

The Schumachers are shocked by Benson’s suggestion.

“The Schumacher family has sold fur in Portland for 111 years. We’ve never closed our store, not even during the Depression,” Gregg Schumacher said.

After receiving Benson’s reply, Leonard e-mailed Linda Schumacher back to say he believes she and Gregg are partly to blame for the situation. According to Benson’s e-mail to Leonard, the Schumachers have disregarded police advice to temporarily close their store on Saturday Ñ and have instead argued with the protesters and mocked them with signs posted in their store windows.

“Neither the police bureau nor my office can assist you if you are not willing to accept our advice on a strategy that helps us help you cause the protesters to lose interest in targeting your business,” Leonard wrote.

The Schumachers denied doing anything wrong.

“Have I sworn at them? After they’ve stood outside the store and sworn at me at the top of their lungs. But we’re not breaking any laws Ñ they are,” Linda Schumacher said.

Convinced that the police could and should do more to protect them and their business, the Schumachers have reserved time to present their case to the City Council at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 5. They are urging neighboring business owners and managers to join them, saying the protests are hurting all the surrounding businesses.

The Schumachers’ complaints come at a time when Portland is struggling to retain its downtown businesses. There are many retail vacancies in the city core. The council is supporting TriMet’s controversial plan to overhaul the transit mall in the hopes of revitalizing Fifth and Sixth avenues by adding light rail and a full car through-lane from Union Station to Portland State University.

But according to the Schumachers, the council will not be able to reverse the exodus until it starts paying more attention to the existing businesses.

“We’re already looking at Beaverton for our next store,” Gregg Schumacher said.