If PETA's recent successes are any indication, down is going down fast.

The latest company to make the synthetic leap onto our anti-down bandwagon is Colorado's leading furniture manufacturer, Woodley's Fine Furniture. The Woodley brothers started their company decades ago with the intention of offering quality home furnishings that did not take a toll on nature—but they had been designing sofas stuffed with down. After PETA sent the company our down exposé, Woodley's agreed that its vision did not include using feathers that were yanked out of live birds or feathers from birds who had tubes rammed down their throats for the cruel production of foie gras and will no longer purchase down-filled upholstery. 

Ready to make the down industry's feathers fly? Check out PETA's top five ways to take action against down—because if people in the skiing capital of the U.S. are done with down, shouldn't the rest of us embrace warm and soft synthetic options, too?

Rabbits are on a roll! Natural-products giant Nature's Gate just became the fourth company to pull out of the Chinese market until the country stops requiring tests on animals for cosmetics. After talks with PETA, Nature's Gate agreed that there is nothing pretty about tormenting animals in laboratories, and the company chose to forgo the large Chinese market, rather than sacrificing its commitment to being cruelty-free.

iStockphoto.com/SQUAMISH 

PETA is proud to give Nature's Gate our Courage in Commerce Award for its dedication to offering a wide array of quality personal-care and beauty products without  harming animals anywhere in the world.

And Nature's Gate is in good company: Paul Mitchell, Dermalogica, and Pangea Organics have all pulled their products out of China in order to save animals' lives, and many more companies, such as Urban Decay and NYX, have refused to sell in China until the animal testing requirements are lifted. As a result, these conscientious companies are being rewarded with even more customer support, and with the help of the scientists PETA is helping to fund, China is prepping to approve its first non-animal testing method. 

Please join us in thanking Nature's Gate, and continue to support companies that don't test on animals by checking PETA's online list of companies that do and that don't test on animals. Order your own free copy of PETA's first-ever global cruelty-free shopping guide and take it with you every time you shop! Naturally.

We can now add Suffolk, Virginia, to the growing list of cities that recognize that dogs deserve better than life on a chain—something that PETA has been advocating for a long time.

In January, when Suffolk Council Member Mike Duman initially proposed a tethering ban, he met with resistance. But two short months later, the council voted to ban chaining completely. How did this reversal occur?

PETA wrote to council members and got our friend the comedian Wanda Sykes, who is from Virginia, to do the same. Daphna Nachminovitch, our vice president of cruelty investigations, raised awareness about the issue by writing a blog for a local website.

And we asked Alice Conner to share with the council the story of her 2-year-old cousin who was killed by dogs in Suffolk who became aggressive after being chained for years.

Local PETA members and residents also weighed in. And our message got through loud and clear.

PETA's Community Animal Project staff members receive more calls about abused and neglected chained dogs in Suffolk than in any other area surrounding the Sam Simon Center, our Virginia headquarters. As of September 1, 2013, Suffolk residents who do this to their dogs will face fines!

We thank Mike Duman, Alice Conner, Wanda Sykes, and all the other compassionate people who helped make the Suffolk tethering ban a reality. Now, with the help of Sykes and actor Patton Oswalt, we are working with Newport News, one of the two remaining cities in the region that still don't restrict or ban chaining, to improve living conditions for its dog population.

If you would like to help get a chaining ban passed in your hometown, we offer a wealth of resources. 

Today is a monumental day. Starting today, any cosmetics product or ingredient that is tested on animals anywhere in the world cannot be sold in the European Union. So every one of the 500 million EU consumers will be purchasing only cruelty-free cosmetics.

The European Parliament had already banned cosmetics companies from tormenting animals in cruel tests on EU soil. But now that the deadline for the last step of this historic phased-in ban on animal testing has arrived, companies eyeing the lucrative EU market will have to abandon all animal tests anywhere in the world for both their finished products and their ingredients. The ban has already led many companies to invest in advanced non-animal testing methods, sparing countless rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, rats, and other animals from having chemicals dumped into their eyes, poured down their throats, and ground into their skin.  

The EU ban reflects the public's conviction that cosmetics should not be valued over animals' lives. People on this side of the pond can let our voices be heard, too—by purchasing only cruelty-free products. Please order PETA's free Beauty Without Bunnies Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide today, and PETA's online database of companies that don't test on animals—anywhere in the world—makes it as easy as point, click, and save lives. 

We're delighted to announce a crucial victory in PETA's AirCruelty campaign. This morning, China Eastern Airlines informed PETA that as of March 1, 2013, it will no longer ship primates to laboratories to be used in experiments!  

This ends the export of monkeys from China for use in laboratories! Prior to this exciting development, the majority of primates imported into the United States for experimental use were from China—in 2012, more than 10,000 primates destined for U.S. laboratories came from China. After both China Southern and Air China stopped primate shipments for experiments following pressure from PETA, China Eastern was left as the sole transporter of monkeys from that country to laboratories. Its compassionate new policy means that animal experimenters are left without a single airline to transport primates from China and PETA has now been successful in shutting down this market.

In recent months, PETA had stepped up pressure on China Eastern by encouraging our members and supporters to contact the airline via phone and e-mail. More than 100,000 of you took action. (Thank you!) Local activists with Empty Cages Los Angeles and other groups also helped increase pressure recently by conducting protests at China Eastern offices around the world.

What You Can Do

This is an important advance in keeping primates away from experimenters, but PETA won't rest until these smart and sensitive animals are safe once and for all—and we hope you're in it for the long haul, too! Please urge the last three remaining holdouts to follow China Eastern's example and adopt a formal policy prohibiting the transport of primates destined for laboratories.

More good news on the international product testing front: After discussions with PETA, Pangea Organics is ending all sales of its products in China, where animal tests for cosmetics are required. For choosing principles over profits and vowing not to pay for animal tests anywhere in the world, PETA is proud to honor Pangea Organics with our Courage in Commerce Award.

© iStockPhoto.com/zoshyii 

Pangea Organics has been a member of PETA's Beauty Without Bunnies program and will stay on PETA's cruelty-free list along with more than 1,300 cosmetics companies and personal-care and household products companies that are committed to compassion.

Pangea joins a growing list of companies that are choosing to stay true to their cruelty-free roots. Last year, Paul Mitchell Systems became the first company to pull out of China rather than harming animals after learning from PETA that selling in that country would mean painful and deadly tests on animals, and other companies, such as Dermalogica, have followed suit. Urban Decay also reversed its decision to enter the Chinese market after hearing from thousands of PETA supporters. And NYX, Paula's Choice, Yes To Carrots, and Jack Black have all said, "No, thanks!" to the Chinese market until tests on animals are no longer required—and that day is coming closer. PETA is helping to fund the efforts of the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, which is working to help Chinese scientists and government officials accept superior, non-animal methods, and China is poised to approve its first non-animal test. 

Please help us congratulate Pangea Organics, and show your support for cruelty-free living by using PETA's brand-new global Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide every time you shop! Order a free copy or use PETA's Beauty Without Bunnies database to find compassionate companies that refuse to pay for animal tests anywhere in the world.  

Update: In one of the pettiest pieces of pork-barrel politics we've seen in a long time, North Carolina state Rep. Roger West, who just so happens to be a sponsor of Brasstown's annual New Year's Eve Possum Drop, has introduced Senate Bill 60, also sneeringly known as "The Opossum Right-to-Work Act."

At face value, the bill appears to be simply a way to skirt a judge's recent ruling that outlawed the cruel event. But it's actually far more insidious than that—it would also strip other wildlife protections and would allow wild animals to be held in captivity for unspecified periods of time, put on display for profit or publicity, and exploited for some unspecified "other purpose." The bill even seeks to exempt some activities from the state's anti-cruelty law. TV icon Bob Barker has sent a letter to members of the North Carolina Senate urging them to reject the bill, and if you're a North Carolina resident, we hope you will do the same and get all your neighbors to weigh in, too. 

Originally posted on November 14th, 2012:

After the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC), despite an objection from PETA, issued a made-up permit to Clay Logan to possess an opossum for his cruel annual New Year's Eve "Opossum Drop"—in which a terrified opossum is abducted, held captive, then suspended and lowered into a horde of boisterous revelers—at his general store in Brasstown, PETA took the matter to court. Now the verdict's in, and the animal with the gray fur scored a victory over the folks with the red faces—and necks.

That's right, y'all: Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred G. Morrison Jr. ruled in PETA's favor, finding that in North Carolina, citizens "are prohibited from capturing and using wild animals for pets or amusement" and that the "WRC has no authority to issue any permit to Logan for the unlawful public display of a native wild animal at the Opossum Drop Event." As a result, the WRC may not "issue any permit or license for possessing and publicly displaying a live opossum for use in an 'Opossum Drop' event or for any other public display of a live opossum or other native wild animal."

Each year, several weeks prior to New Year's Eve, Logan has captured an opossum from the wild and confined the animal before hoisting him or her high into the air on New Year's Eve, and then, with a raucous crowd cheering and the noise of fireworks, live music, and the firing of muskets and cannons, lowered the frightened animal into the fray. Opossums are shy animals who are terrified of humans—their primary predator—and vulnerable to stress-related conditions because of captivity, including capture myopathy, which can result in death days or even weeks after release back into the wild.

What You Can Do

Causing animals pain or distress should never be cause for celebration. Learn more about entertainment that doesn't harm animals as well as how to live in harmony with wildlife.

In a rousing victory for animals, a county planning commission in the U.K. has denied a notorious chicken factory farm a spot within its borders. 

Harrison Farms had asked the Shropshire Council for permission to build an intensive factory farm in which 330,000 chickens at a time would be tightly crammed into dark sheds until the time came to slaughter them. But after hearing from PETA U.K. and almost 5,000 of PETA U.K.'s members and supporters, the council denied the application.

The animal advocates explained to the council how factory farms dose chickens with massive amounts of antibiotics to keep them alive in the cramped, filthy conditions and to make them grow so large so fast that many of them become crippled under their own weight or experience organ failure. They also relayed how the farms cut off the ends of chickens' sensitive beaks with a searing-hot blade to stop the frustrated birds from pecking at each other and how the only time the chickens see grass or feel the warmth of the sun is when they are being shipped to the slaughterhouse to have their throats slashed and be dunked in tanks of scalding-hot water. They also gave the council information on how factory farms are among the main contributors to climate change. 

 Congratulations to everyone who wrote in!

Sometimes, even compassionate people seem to disregard fish. I know: I was one of them. Years after I stopped eating meat, I identified as a vegetarian but would still have a little sushi. It was a long time before I realized—thanks to PETA—that fish are sentient beings who feel pain acutely and struggle against death. Perhaps a few other people are having their own "aha" moment right now, thanks to PETA Germany's recent victory for fish. 

Acting on a tip, two PETA Germany investigators joined some tourists on a crab fishing boat operating along the northern coast. The crab fishing itself wasn't illegal, but the way the anglers were tormenting their "bycatch," fish, certainly was. Under German law, fish must be instantly killed or placed in water after being caught. But these anglers were catching several fish in their crab traps and leaving the unwanted animals to asphyxiate to death on the boat. They even laughed about the animals' struggle to breathe before they died.

The investigators shot video evidence and began throwing suffering fish back into the water. Then they filed a complaint with the Hamburg District Attorney's Office, and the court slapped the owner of the boat with a fine of 400 euros (about $540). He and his crew will likely be taking fish protection laws more seriously now.

If you know someone who claims, "I'm a vegetarian, but I still eat fish," perhaps you can mention this story as a way of illustrating that fish feel pain and, like every other animal, deserve to be free from suffering. 

After PETA filed multiple complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding egregious violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) at Chief Saunooke Bear Park, the bear pit must now surrender its exhibitor license. What's more, the license will remain suspended until the dismal facility is able to prove that it's compliant with AWA regulations—if it ever can.

Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians joined PETA in meeting with the USDA to detail the problems at the Cherokee, North Carolina, roadside zoo. Following our complaints and meeting, the USDA charged the bear pit with more than a dozen violations. Now, the park has agreed to pay a fine and surrender its license in order to settle the case. It's probably a smart move, considering that in a 62-page report that PETA gave to the USDA, bear experts who visited the facility documented that, among other violations, the park was failing to maintain adequate barriers between bears and the public, leading to at least two attacks on visitors thus far. According to the experts, the park also failed to supply food for its public feedings that met the bears' nutritional needs and instead allowed visitors to feed them cat food and Lucky Charms cereal. Among many other abuses, the facility also failed to provide the bears with veterinary care and forced them to eat from filthy, unsanitary food containers.

Barely a month ago, a PETA investigation revealed that staff members were deliberately depriving bears of food and that the animals are so stressed from being constantly confined to small, concrete pits that they pace repeatedly and gnaw at the metal cage bars. Our investigation also uncovered drug use, racism, wage-law violations, and more.

Please ask the USDA to take the next step and confiscate the abused bears.