Chaffee Supports Fur Trapping

RUTLAND, Vt. — Former Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee has been touring the country speaking out against animal-rights activists who would ban the sale of fur coats.

For the past three years, Chaffee, 43, has helped design and promote a collection of fur-lined skiwear called Suzy Chaffee Sport Furs.

She spoke in Aspen, Colo., before the recent defeat of a proposed ordinance that would have banned the sale of furs in the resort community, and has been appearing on talk shows.

“My credibility is very important to me, and I feel I am really being responsible to the animals and to nature and to the environment because trapping them is better than letting them die the disease-and-starvation route,” she said.

Chaffee, known to the public as “Suzy Chapstick” because of her television commercial for lip balm, skied in the 1968 Winter Olympics and was a three-time world freestyle champion.