07:23 PM PST on Wednesday, March 29, 2006

By ANTONIA GIEDWOYN, kgw.com Staff

The animosity between fur sellers at a downtown Portland shop and animal rights activists is escalating and city officials said they worry about the potential for violence.

KGW photo

Linda and Gregg Schumacher inside their downtown Portland fur store.

Schumacher Firs is at the center of the battle in which both store owners and activists are apparently trading threats.

“They yelled that they're going to kill us… they’ll yell, ‘Kill Schumacher, kill Schumacher’… they yell they're going to burn our house down,” said storeowner Linda Schumacher.

Those protesting the treatment of animals in the fur industry have similar accusations for the shop owners.

“Their security guard has said things like, ‘We'll break your arms and legs,’” said animal rights activist Matt Rossell.

The Schumachers have also stoked the fire – at one time, they displayed a poster in their store’s front window that read, “All protesters should be beaten, strangled, skinned alive and anally electrocuted.”

They approached city commissioner Randy Leonard for help, but when he saw the aforementioned sign, he concluded there was probably no way to reduce the venom between the two groups due to the Schumachers’ provocations.

KGW photo

A sign in the Schumacher's store.

“These folks seem to like the protests, they like the attention,” Leonard said.

Store co-owner Gregg Schumacher denied enjoying the publicity and said he provided police with video of protesters splattering red paint in the store, trespassing and intimidating employees and customers.

Police arrested three activists.

Animal rights activists began protesting outside the shop last November.

(KGW reporter Randy Neves also contributed to this article.)