A PROTEST by pupils at Bury school against a clothing shop selling fur prompted an amazing response.

For bosses at the head office of Zara in Spain ordered the offending items be removed from its shelves.

Youngsters from the Castlebrook High School school wrote to Zara's top management, after eagle-eyed teen shoppers spotted fur on various items in the Manchester and Trafford Centre branches.

Around 150 pupils from Years 7, 8 and 9, wrote letters to the managers at Zara explaining how upset and offended they were to see fur on items of ladies clothing in their stores

Maria Panayi, Key Stage 4 co-ordinator at the school, said: "The children had seen real rabbit fur coats on sale in the shops, and wanted to send letters of complaint to the store.

"We spent English lessons writing and typing up the letters and the sent them to the Zara head office. After a week or so we hadn't heard anything, but then each of the children got their own personal reply from the head office in Spain, and was told that the items had now been removed from the stores."

The children were overjoyed at their success and were very excited to receive their own replies.

Mike Shearwood, managing director of Zara UK, said: "We received a number of letters requesting that we remove rabbit fur products from the stores in line with customers' demands. It was a very difficult situation."

It is not the first time pupils have taken action and voiced their concerns on such issues. They have also written letters to their MP about bears being held captive in China.