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Residents and activists from the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosí travelled to Toronto to tell the shareholders of a Canadian mining company that their investments are at risk because the billion-dollar Cerro San Pedro gold and silver mine is illegal and environmentally unsafe. "We want the Canadian people to be aware their investments have serious environmental and social damages in other countries. The mining is right next to monuments of national importance."

There is something about an election year that makes politicians start bragging about how many furry or feathered critters they’ve killed. Otherwise, God forbid, voters might think they were interested in doing something about gun control.

An animal rights group said on Thursday that some retailers were selling coats made with real animal fur that were advertised as having fake fur.

The Humane Society of the United States said a follow-up to its investigation last year found that retailers including Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue were selling jackets that had been mislabeled as "faux fur" but were trimmed with actual animal fur.

The Humane Society said in a statement that it determined the fur was real through laboratory tests and cutting open the lining of the fur trim on products it had purchased.

A pet store in the Bel-Air neighborhood deceived customers, including Hollywood celebrities, about the origin of their puppies, many of which come from unlicensed pet mills, according to a Humane Society of the United States investigation released Tuesday.

The International Otter Survival Fund today launched an anti-fur campaign. Furget-me-not is targeted at saving the otter, which it says is the forgotten animal of the fur trade. The campaign will raise funds to train local rangers and government staff in Cambodia, where many are hunted. But the main market for otter furs is Tibet where it forms part of the traditional dress.

ONE OF the country’s most exclusive department stores is shelving its tradition of selling animal fur products.

Brown Thomas will initiate a "no fur" policy from February, with management insisting it was taking animal welfare into account.

The move has been welcomed by animal rights activists who have recently campaigned outside the store’s Grafton Street branch.

Brown Thomas stores in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway will only sell synthetic fur, or leather, suede, sheepskin, and shearling.

Julie O'Connor, a co-founder of the Caring Activists Against Fur group and a Tenafly resident, said animals are being trapped in painful devices and confined in cages before being killed and skinned to make coats.

"In the wild, minks and foxes are able to roam for miles," O'Connor said. "If they are raised on a fur farm, they are kept in a cage. You see the animals circle constantly in their cage because they are being driven insane from not being able to move."

Why doesn't it occur to people that if you raise animals in cleaner and more humane conditions with more space, there's less risk of contamination?

CHANGSHA, China — Unnoticed and unappreciated for five decades, a large female turtle with a stained, leathery shell is now a precious commodity in this city’s decaying zoo. She is fed a special diet of raw meat. Her small pool has been encased with bulletproof glass. A surveillance camera monitors her movements. A guard is posted at night. 

The agenda is simple: The turtle must not die.

Earlier this year, scientists concluded that she was the planet’s last known female Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle. She is about 80 years old and weighs almost 90 pounds.

WWF today called on celebrities not to promote luxury brands following the launch of a new report which ranks the top 10 luxury brands by their environmental, social and governance records.

The conservation group found leather goods manufacturer Tods, Italian jeweller Bulgari, Cartier owner Richemont, and PPR, which owns Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Stella McCartney among the worst performers.

New research suggests Canadian polar bear hunting policies could be pushing populations of the iconic Arctic predator toward sudden, steep declines.

Heating up an intense debate over the fate of an animal that has come to symbolize climate change, a paper published Wednesday in the London, England-based Proceedings of the Royal Society suggests that the bears' ability to maintain their numbers depends in part on their male-female split. 

Want to brave the masses and mayhem of Black Friday but avoid the cruelty of animal fur?

The fur experts at The HSUS have put together some tips for painless post-Thanksgiving shopping—for you and fur-bearing animals.

Vote for your favorite fur-free campaign poster in the Annual Design Against Fur student competition!

The disappearance of hundreds of household cats has sparked calls for an official inquiry amid fears that they could have been killed, skinned and turned into blankets.

Concern has been fuelled by the existence of a legal Swiss trade in cat fur, which is reputed to be good for rheumatism. But cat blanket retailers have denounced allegations of widespread cat-napping across the border in France as absurd. They insist that they buy skins from wild felines killed in Switzerland and Britain.

Dishes so delectably satisfying that it will make all, especially vegetarians, feel loved and looked after, at Thanksgiving.