Guilty Pleas Underscore Moves Against a Deadly Fashion Statement

Like the leopard coat and the ivory bracelet before it, the shahtoosh shawl is threatening the survival of an endangered species. But as the Tibetan antelope that is killed for its wool nears extinction, an international crackdown is underway against trafficking in the shawls.

The first U.S. criminal prosecution involving the illegal sale of smuggled shawls occurred in New Jersey last month.

Shawl dealer Navarang Exports of Bombay, India, and importers Linda Ho McAfee of Hong Kong and Janet Mackay-Benton of New Egypt, N.J., pleaded guilty in Newark, N.J., to violating international laws that have long protected the animals. The Indian exporter may face a $500,000 penalty and the importers could be jailed for up to six months and fined $25,000 when they are sentenced in October. Authorities in London, Spain and Hong Kong have also seized shawls recently.

The Navarang case gave antelope protection its biggest boost in awareness here. A November 1999 Vanity Fair article reported that subpoenas had been issued in connection with the case to celebrities and socialites who allegedly bought shahtoosh at a charity sale a few years earlier.

The ensuing media blitz raised awareness, but much work is ahead, experts say. Loopholes in current laws make enforcement difficult and interstate commerce in shahtoosh legal.

“It hasn’t stopped the illegal purchases,” said George B. Schaller, a wildlife biologist and director of science for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. “If you go to Delhi and let the word get out, someone will show up in your hotel room and sell you shawls. You can fly to New York and customs doesn’t check most baggage. Then you go to a private apartment in Park Avenue and people will show up and buy them under the table.”

In some circles, shahtoosh is still worn openly. Susan Stone, owner of the Santa Monica boutique Savannah, recently saw a fellow Concorde passenger wearing four of the shawls, which probably cost at least $2,500 each.

“I think the shahtoosh was a classic status symbol, and if women could still get them, they would,” said Stone, who said most U.S. stores won’t touch shahtoosh “with a 10-foot pole.”

Though fine-woolens dealer Gabriele Sanders began to alert the fashion community about shahtoosh more than three years ago, she’s seen more cynicism than concern. “Only the rich and jet-setty crowd could afford to buy shahtoosh, thus it did not affect the ‘common man,’ or even your young fashion editors,” she said. “And quite frankly, not enough of those people care, anyhow, whether animals are hurt or even extinct.”

More complicating, shahtoosh is part of Indian culture. “The shahtoosh trade will probably never be completely eliminated,” said Justin Lowe, director of the Tibetan Plateau Project in San Francisco. “Demand is harder to eradicate where shahtoosh has a historical and cultural value. Sometimes, cultural values have unforeseen impact, and in this case, it’s decimation of a species.”

Experts agree that most shahtoosh is woven and sold in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and then smuggled to fashion capitals. “The trade in India has diminished, but it has gone underground because it’s now recognized as contraband,” said Michael Sautman, president of California Cashmere Co. in Berkeley. He and others are offering shahtoosh alternatives such as shahmina, a wool from a domestic goat.

Meanwhile, U.S. violators could face harsher punishments as environmentalists seek to add the Tibetan antelope to the federal Endangered Species Act. A listing would outlaw interstate (not just international) commerce, make violators subject to additional laws and penalties, and possibly allow authorities to confiscate any shawl purchased in the last 20 years.

“The wildlife trade is very much like the drug trade,” Lowe said. “They are clandestine, global in scope and involve a great deal of money and very influential people at both ends.

“There is concern that, because of the crackdown, manufacturing may spread to other countries where there is less vigilance [in enforcement].”