It’s always great news when a major retailer emerges from the dark ages and realizes that it’s not in its best interests to support the barbaric fur industry. And the bottom line here is that after extensive negotiations between PETA and bebe, the company has agreed to stop buying fur to sell in its stores—which means that no more animals will suffer for bebe’s clothing lines. So, hooray for that.

The bad news is that the company has refused to pull the fur from its racks until after the Holiday season, which means they get one more round of profits from promoting an industry that electrocutes animals and skins them alive. Which is why we’re asking consumers to refuse to shop at bebe this season in favor of compassionate retailers that either never sold fur or have already pulled it from their shelves (like, for instance, Ann Taylor, Charlotte Russe, Donna Karen, Express, Gap, H&M, J. Crew, Jones Apparel, Polo Ralph Lauren, Talbots, Tommy Hilfiger, Urban Outfitters, Wet Seal, or Zara).

So there you have it—it’s a bit lousy of bebe to continue to profit from fur sales over the next three months, but their decision to stop buying the stuff does make a big difference to the animals used by the fur industry, which now has one less major company to fuel their profits. A huge thank you to everyone who helped us out by contacting bebe about this issue during our negotiations!

…Speaking of which—if you haven’t contacted the folks at Burberry yet about their refusal to even acknowledge the horrors they’re funding by selling fur, please take a few moments to let Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts know what you think.

As the air date for I Am An Animal, the HBO documentary about PETA, approaches, there is one important question in the minds of PETA staff members such as myself: “Am I in it?” Well, that’s what I’m wondering, anyway. From everything I’ve heard about this film, it’s an extremely compelling look at animal rights issues, PETA’s role in the movement, and more specifically, what makes PETA President Ingrid Newkirk tick. Evidently, it’s also very even-handed—it gives equal time to PETA’s detractors, and it explores opposing viewpoints and the various controversies that exist within the movement from an impartial perspective. Which is all well and good, but as we know, the real question here is, are there any scenes that have me in them? Like, even a shot where I’m standing around in the background will be fine.

Unfortunately, most of the world will have to wait for the answer to this burning question until Monday at 8 p.m. If you don’t have HBO, see if you can get yourself invited over to a friend’s house to watch it—it really does look like it’s going to be a winner. In the meantime, you can enter to win a copy of the DVD here, and by way of a teaser, here’s what Ingrid had to say about the documentary: