Donna Karan, the target of one of our campaigns, has announced that her fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has "no plans" to use fur in the future!

PETA is now calling on activists and supporters to put the brakes on our "Donna Karan: Bunny Butcher" antics, which have included protesting outside her boutiques, crashing her runway show, and exposing her cruel use of fur online. This is a win for the real fashion victims—animals, who are routinely skinned alive for their pelts—and will allow us all to focus on Armani and other targets while keeping an eye on Donna Karan's 2010 collection.

Karan's announcement came days after PETA launched our (now offline) DonnaKaranBunnyButcher.com Web site and after mega–fashion guru Tim Gunn sent Karan and designer Giorgio Armani a video that he narrated for PETA showing animals skinned alive for their fur and urged them to open their eyes to the violent and bloody fur industry.

While Donna Karan has followed in the footsteps of top designers—including Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and Calvin Klein—Armani still refuses to stop using fur. Armani claims that he "only" uses fur from rabbits who are butchered for meat. We hope that you will take this opportunity to contact Armani to tell him that while the meat of gentle rabbits killed for their fur in China is sold to be eaten, the suffering that they endure is exactly the same. Point out that the cruelty depicted in this video on fur farms in both China and France show animals who are killed for both fur and meat.

If you're under the age of 21, please send a message to Armani through our youth campaign site, peta2.com.

Posted by Joel Bartlett

Any other Project Runway fans out there? Yep, that's what I thought! I am just dying for them to announce the date for the new season. I mean, yeah, the clothes are awesome and the drama is entertaining, but I'll admit that the real reason I tune in is to see the true genius behind the show: Tim Gunn. Know what his next project is? Convincing Donna Karan and Giorgio Armani to forgo fur! Yes, that's right. America's best-known arbiter of good taste and style has just narrated PETA's new exposé of fur farms—including just-obtained footage of rabbit fur farms in China, where Karan and Armani both source their pelts. Check out the video here:

Because the designers have refused to meet with PETA to view the footage, Gunn has just sent it to them with a personal plea. Why is the fur flying over Chinese pelts in particular? The world's largest exporter of fur is now China—where foxes, rabbits, and cats and dogs are often skinned alive.

"Any designer in the fashion industry who does not want to watch the PETA video and see exactly what happens to animals and how they're treated and how the product that they use comes to the marketplace I believe is egregiously irresponsible," says Tim. "It is critically important that we all be educated about these matters and then make choices."

And it gets better: Tim also sat down with us for an exclusive Q&A!

There. I told you he's a genius! If anyone can make Donna Karan and Giorgio Armani "make it work" without using the skins of dead animals in their collections, he can. Carry on! (I just wanted to say that …)

Posted by Lianne Turner

Update 12/22/2008: Donna Karan has announced that her fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has "no plans" to use fur in the future! Read more.

We're so proud to launch our new Web site: DonnaKaranBunnyButcher.com. By going back on her promise to shed fur from her collection (twice!), Donna Karan has made it clear that she's OK with the electrocutions, neglect, confinement, suffocation, and death that go on in factory farms. In response, we've shown up at her apartment, her fashion shows, and her runways to remind her that animals are skinned alive for her designs. Now, we've stepped it up and launched a full interactive Web site to educate her customers about this cruel abuse.

If you like the campaign site as much as we do, then you're probably wondering what you can do to help us reach more people. Well, guess what? The site is loaded with online elements such as Web banners that you can post and videos that you can stream. So go ahead and show your love of bunnies by posting one of these Web banners to your Web page or online profile:

<a href="http://www.donnakaranbunnybutcher.com/?c=dkbbb208"><img src="http://www.donnakaranbunnybutcher.com/images/donna-karan-banner2.gif" alt="Donna Karan: Bunny Butcher" width="480" height="60" border="0" /></a>

The site also has three heartbreaking videos that I strongly encourage you to watch and share. They will change your life, and they're guaranteed to make fur wearers change their ways. Use the code below to begin changing people's minds now.

And to all our MySpace friends: Keep an eye out for our new "Donna Karan Bunny Butcher" layouts coming soon!

So, check out DonnaKaranBunnyButcher.com and be sure to share the site with everyone you know. Oh, and here is the link with Donna Karan's contact information—please be sure to send her a polite letter and let her know what you think of her use of fur. For inspiration before you sit down to write, check out our "Ever Heard a Bunny Scream?" video.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

Update 12/22/2008: Donna Karan has announced that her fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has "no plans" to use fur in the future! Read more.

A Donna Karan Boutique in Manhasset, New York, received some negative attention yesterday, when PETA's "Grim Reapers"—holding signs that read, "Donna, Bring Out Your Dead!"—greeted pedestrians and passing cars. The purpose of the protest was to spotlight DK's continued use of fur in her collections—even after we've made several attempts to educate her on the hideous cruelty of the fur industry. Check out photos from the demonstration below!

Our Grim Reaper didn't take any lives, but as DK's fatal record shows, she can't claim the same. Her refusal to drop fur from her collections only continues to support cruel practices such as anal electrocution and drowning.

Donna Karan needs to take a hint from her compassionate fashion counterparts and go fur-free. Because seriously, DK, how many animals are you going to kill to make your ugly fur coats?

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Update 12/22/2008: Donna Karan has announced that her fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has "no plans" to use fur in the future! Read more.

We have a bit of a history with Donna Karan. This might surprise you (OK, so it won't), but we don't like it when people tell us they're going to stop using fur and then go back on their word. That's why we like to visit Donna—at her apartment, at her fashion shows, and even on her runways. Eventually, we figure, she'll stick to her multiple promises to stop using fur—especially if consumers boycott her designs.

And that, my friends, is why you might see our posters around Donna's office and apartment in Manhattan. The posters show a woman's foot pressing on a rabbit's neck beside the tagline "Where Does Donna Karan Stand on Fur?" You can check out photos below—we hope they'll convince even more people to boycott Donna Karan, bunny butcher, until she sticks to her promise and dumps the fur once and for all.

Photos: Swing Media

Posted by Amanda Schinke

Update 12/22/2008: Donna Karan has announced that her fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has "no plans" to use fur in the future! Read more.

Fashion designer Donna Karan unveiled her spring 2009 DKNY collection this Sunday at New York's Fashion Week. Of course, PETA was there as well.

PETA members took over the runway during the show wielding signs that read, "Donna: Dump Fur," and chanting, "Shame!" They were protesting because Karan used rabbit fur in her collection that is in stores now—despite her promise to stop using fur. The two protesters were quickly taken from the catwalk and arrested, but we're pretty certain that their message was heard loud and clear.

Meanwhile, outside the show, protesters who were dressed as bloodied rabbits held a demonstration with signs reading, "Rabbits Are Friends," "No Blood for Vanity," and "Real Designers Don't Hurt Animals."

Seriously, Donna. Breaking your promise, even when you know that to get the fur you use, fur farmers smash the rabbits’ skulls and then behead them and skin them – sometimes while they're still alive?

The words "cold" and "heartless" come to mind.

Posted by Carrie Ann Harris

Update 12/22/2008: Donna Karan has announced that her fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has "no plans" to use fur in the future! Read more.

Donna Karan had a bit of an unpleasant surprise at the Yoga Journal Boston Conference on Saturday, in the form of naked PETA members doused in fake blood and crouched in yoga poses. Just our subtle way of saying, “Hey, DK, how about a little less with the nonviolence speeches and a little more with the not skinning bunny rabbits to make clothes?” Except, like without the confusing sentence construction.

The Boston Herald has the story.

Update 12/22/2008: Donna Karan has announced that her fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has "no plans" to use fur in the future! Read more.

Earlier this week, a group calling itself the "Paint Panthers" e-mailed my friend Michael McGraw, who works out of PETA’s New York office, to inform him that they had visited Donna Karan's home in The Hamptons and done a little "redecorating," stenciling "Donna Karan: Bunny Butcher" and painting a rabbit on the pavement with the message, "I don't want to be a handbag." The handwriting leaves a little to be desired, but the message is fairly plain.

Donna Karan, who was visited at home in February by an animal activist who walked into her living room and cued up a DVD of fur farm footage, is under fire for her refusal to remove fur from her collections. You can write to her about this lapse in judgment here.

Update 12/22/2008: Donna Karan has announced that her fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has "no plans" to use fur in the future! Read more.

We’ve been trying to get designer Donna Karan to watch some footage of exactly what happens to the animals killed for her fur coats for a long time now—and yesterday, a brave PETA member who was up in New York for fashion week made sure that happened, with a little help from some soy lattes: Dressed to the nines and carrying a tray of coffees, she marched up to Donna Karan’s apartment and was welcomed inside without any questions, and offered a seat in the living room. When Donna Karan returned home, my friend pulled out the mini DVD player she had in her bag and cued up the fur farm footage, prompting the following exchange:

DK: I can't watch this now. I have somewhere to be . . . I just really don't have the time.
PETA: Yes, but you’ve promised twice that you would stop using fur and you keep bringing it back. Everyone’s so disappointed. You have to know that this isn’t right.
DK: I've seen all these videos, but for me it's just purses and accessories.
PETA: But for me and millions of other people, these are animals. They suffer terribly as they are electrocuted, gassed and skinned alive for their pelts.

…and so on, until Donna decided enough was enough and escorted my friend out of the house. Pissed off as she was, hopefully this has at least planted the seed in her head that it’s time to stop supporting the horrific abuses of the fur industry. But if that doesn’t work, we’ve got a few more tricks up our sleeve:

The New York Post featured this story on their front page today. You can read their coverage here.