Kingston Student Nabs PETA Award for Helping Student Union to Drop Fur

For Immediate Release:

23 March 2017

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6326, ext 222; [email protected]

KINGSTON STUDENT NABS PETA AWARD FOR HELPING STUDENT UNION TO DROP FUR

Simon Plazolles-Hayes Led Campaign to Ban Use of Animal Fur in Fashion Students’ Collections

London – Soon, students in Kingston University’s renowned fashion degree course may be prohibited from including fur in their collections – and it’s all thanks to Kingston student Simon Plazolles-Hayes, who proposed the amendment to the university’s policies and spoke at the Student Union meeting in which it was passed.

A link to the image is available here.

In recognition of his efforts, Plazolles-Hayes will receive a Compassionate Action Award from PETA.

“The fur industry fell out of favour with forward-thinking fashion designers long ago”, says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA is honouring Simon Plazolles-Hayes for his efforts to ensure that the skins of tormented animals don’t appear on any Kingston University catwalks.”

Plazolles-Hayes, a 23-year-old US Army veteran, is currently studying Business Management at Kingston. He enjoys travelling, volunteering for the RSPCA, and teaming up with PETA to fight cruelty to animals – including planning to travel to Pamplona, Spain, to protest the Running of the Bulls. “We as people have a responsibility not to be cruel to the most vulnerable members of society”, he says.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – has teamed up with top young designers, including Hannah Weiland of Shrimps, Faustine Steinmetz, Vika Gazinskaya, and Molly Goddard, to urge fashion students around the world to reject offers from fur companies that push pelts on students in exchange for sponsoring their collections. PETA points out that animals on fur farms are confined to cramped, filthy cages before being drowned, beaten, strangled, electrocuted, or even skinned alive for fur coats, collars, and cuffs.

Eighty-six per cent of the Autumn/Winter 2016 collections featured at London Fashion Week were fur-free, and an independent poll found that 95 per cent of British people refuse to wear real fur.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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