BON’A PARTE Goes Fur-Free Following a PETA Supporter’s Letter

Sometimes, just one person can make a huge difference for animals. While PETA and its affiliates around the world work to improve the lives of animals with high-profile campaigns, we know that small actions can also be very effective.

Many of our supporters achieve success through their own small actions, such as encouraging school cafeterias to offer more vegan options or working with a council to make a community safer for wildlife. And we love hearing their stories.

So we were very excited to find out how a Dutch supporter managed to convince a Denmark-based international fashion catalogue to go fur-free.

When Lia van Dijk received BON’A PARTE’s autumn 2012 catalogue, she was shocked by their use of real fur. Armed with facts from PETA’s website, Lia wrote a letter to the company clearly outlining the horrors of the cruelty involved with fur production. She knew that on fur farms, inquisitive and normally free-roaming animals such as foxes, minks and chinchillas spend their entire lives confined to tiny, filthy wire cages, denied the opportunity to engage in natural behaviour. When they are killed, animals are often gassed, anally or genitally electrocuted or poisoned with strychnine, or their necks are snapped. These methods are not always effective, and some animals wake up while the skin is being torn off their bodies.

Lia sent the letter to the company, cc’ing PETA, and it was a great success. In a response, a BON’A PARTE spokesperson said: “We listen to our customers and, of course, also to NGOs like the one you represent. … [W]e have now decided that we want to be a fur-free fashion house, starting from our next collection”.

Sending a letter is something that most anyone can do. While it might not always make an impression right away, it can really help to pressure and encourage companies to make compassionate decisions.

Thanks to Lia for taking the time to write that letter, and congratulations to BON’A PARTE for taking a step towards cruelty-free fashion.