Did you hear that? It was the collective sigh of relief from raccoons, foxes, and minks—as well as human fur foes everywhere. It turns out that France's first lady and international style icon Carla Bruni-Sarkozy refuses to wear fur.

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PETA Vice President Dan Mathews contacted Bruni-Sarkozy after seeing photos that showed her wearing what appeared to be real fur. She wrote back, "I do not wear, buy, or own fur …. Every designer who kindly lends me clothes for public appearances can tell you that I do not accept … fur pieces, even when they're only a small part of the outfit."

The first lady—who admitted to wearing fur during her modeling heyday—also made it clear that if the photos are recent, the fur is fake.

"By officially rejecting fur in the fashion capital of the world, this political and style idol will make people everywhere think about how old-fashioned and cruel it is," said Dan in a statement issued to the media.

With some free shoes from Stella McCartney, courtesy of PETA, on the way to Carla's doorstep, we're hoping she will swear off leather for good too.

Posted by Karin Bennett

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Grammy Award-winning hip hop artist Eve was in the news this week with a story about the fact that she's given up wearing her mink fur coat. Here's what she had to say about it:

"It's nothing to do with animal rights—it's just that I have moved on. I think people should be able to wear what they want and I hate that the PETA people throw blood or paint over people wearing fur. To me that's just rude and if anyone did that to me they'd better be tough because they'd have a fight on their hands."

Yeah, the quote didn't exactly inspire me, either, but hey, at least it's on her radar—and sometimes all it takes for someone to come around is a gentle nudge in the right direction. So we sent her this letter, along with a copy of Martha Stewart's fur exposé in the hopes that she'll figure out why it's actually not OK for people to "wear what they want" when there's live skinning or electrocution involved. I really do think there’s a good chance she’ll change her tune once she sees how fur coats are actually made. I'll definitely let you know if we get a response.

While we're on the topic, I figured this was as good a time as any to point out that PETA has actually never thrown red paint at fur-wearers. Pies, maybe, but never red paint. Just one of those urban legends, I guess.