After receiving complaints that Newbury Comics was selling animal figurines made from rabbit fur, peta2 launched a campaign against the New England music store chain. Within a day of receiving more than 700 e-mails from peta2 activists, the retailer immediately removed fur products from its shelves and enacted a permanent ban on fur.

After more than a year of negotiations with PETA, popular women's clothing chain bebe sent out a news release announcing that it planned to go fur-free. The company's decision was good news for bebe, which was facing a peta2 boycott campaign, but it was even better news for rabbits, who often have their necks broken or their skulls smashed before workers string them up by their legs and cut their throats.

When PETA learned that AC Reynolds High School in Asheville, North Carolina, intended to hold a "Kiss a Pig" contest, we sprung into action. We contacted the school principal and alerted her to the cruelty involved in bringing a young, frightened piglet into a huge auditorium packed with screaming students. The principal agreed that terrifying pigs and degrading teachers wasn't the lesson she wanted to teach her students. The pig was never taken into the school, and the students and faculty learned a valuable lesson about compassion.

After learning from PETA how animals killed for their fur are treated, Swiss watchmaker Swatch, Burton Snowboards, and fashion giants Rebecca Taylor and Nicole Miller made the compassionate decision never to use fur in their designs again. In a letter to PETA, Swatch chief operating officer Reto J. Stockli wrote, "Swatch Ltd. and the Swatch Group Ltd. do not want to be associated with cruelty to animals."

Companies are pledging to go fur-free after learning how millions of rabbits, minks, and other fur-bearing animals are subjected to horrible conditions in the name of fashion each year. Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages and often go without clean water and veterinary care. At the end of their miserable lives, these animals are killed using the cheapest and cruelest killing methods available, including suffocation, electrocution, gassing, and poisoning.

Swatch, Rebecca Taylor, Nicole Miller, and Burton are now part of a growing group of compassionate companies that have adopted fur-free policies, including Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, H&M, Forever 21, J.Crew, Gap Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, and many others. Companies like these set the standard for fashion, and we're proud they've made the compassionate choice to go fur-free!