TORONTO - PETA is giving fur coats to the homeless.

The animal rights group says only people truly in need have the right to wear fur.

"We can't bring the animals back or change the fact that they were beaten and skinned to make the coat, but we can bring a little warmth to people in desperate need," PETA spokesman Virginia Fort said Thursday in Toronto, where she had 50 fur coats for the city's homeless.

"PETA receives piles of fur and fur-trimmed items from people who bought them before realizing that animals were drowned, beaten to death, strangled, electrocuted and even skinned alive in order to produce fur coats, collars and cuffs," Fort said.

"We have burned them in protest, used them as animal bedding and now we are giving them to the homeless."

Several celebrities including Mariah Carey and Kim Cattrall have donated fur coats to PETA as part of the homeless campaign.