After years of pressure from animal rights activists nationwide - including PETA - JCPenney has finally decided to stop peddling pelts. PETA first wrote to JCPenney about the company's support of the cruel fur industry in 2001, and we have kept the pressure on ever since, including sending complaints to the company over its mislabeling of fur items.

After meeting with PETA and learning about the cruelty inherent in the procurement, training, and disposal of great apes when they're no longer useful to the entertainment industry, advertising agency Global Hue signed PETA's Great Ape Humane Pledge, agreeing never again to use great apes in any future advertising campaigns.

PETA spoke with executives at Big Fuel Communications to alert them about the abuse that great apes endure when they are used in the advertising industry. After learning about the cruelty, the executives immediately pledged never to use great apes in any future advertising campaigns.

After learning from concerned moviegoers that Sprint Nextel was airing a commercial featuring a performing chimpanzee in movie theaters, PETA contacted the communications giant. We told its executives about the cruelty inherent in the procurement, training, and disposal of great apes and the negative effects that portraying chimpanzees as comical subhumans has on conservation. Sprint Nextel contacted PETA to let us know that it would not feature great apes in any future ads.

PETA's Laboratory Investigations Division learned that live pigs were being cut up for training in various gynecological surgeries and suturing techniques at the American Society for Women's Health medical conference hosted by Florida Hospital Celebration Health. We sent the organizers a letter detailing the cruelty involved in using animals for medical training and describing humane alternatives such as virtual reality simulators that could be used to train medical professionals without harming animals. We also filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and asked our members and supporters to encourage the hospital to end all use of live animals in these laboratories. The American Society for Women's Health has since confirmed that they will no longer use any animals for training at the conference.