PETA to Boris Johnson: ‘Give Bears a Reason to Party’

PETA to Boris Johnson: ‘Give Bears a Reason to Party’

London – Today, following the enquiry into Downing Street’s lockdown parties – PETA’s “bear”, along with a “guard”, descended on parliament with a message: “Give Bears a Reason to Party – Switch to Faux Fur”. The action is part of PETA’s campaign calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stop the Ministry of Defence (MoD) using the skin from slaughtered bears for the Queen’s Guard’s caps and replace it with humane faux fur.

As mayor of London, Johnson had stated his support for the switch, saying faux-fur caps should be used if they would “help save a few bears”. Now, as prime minister, he can make that happen – and finally give bears a reason to celebrate.

The images are also available here.

“The party’s over for fur,” says PETA Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner. “The world’s most accomplished designers have all dropped this cruelly obtained material in favour of faux fur, so there is no excuse for the MoD not to do the same for its ceremonial headpieces.”

PETA notes that it takes the skin of at least one bear to make a single cap. Despite the MoD’s claims that the bears are killed as part of Canadian government–sanctioned “culls”, PETA has found no evidence of any Canadian province running – or having previously run – any official black bear culling programmes. The Canadian government does, however, issue an annual quota of “tags” to hunting enthusiasts, who are then free to bait and kill an allotted number of bears. Horrifically, the use of bows and arrows is permitted. Hunters can then sell their “trophies”, including bear pelts, to fur auction houses. Some bears are shot several times before they die, and some escape only to bleed to death. When mother bears are killed, their cubs are left to starve.

Earlier this month, TV presenter Alesha Dixon joined PETA to launch a parliamentary petition to replace the bearskin caps with faux fur versions. If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures, it will trigger a much-needed parliamentary debate of the issue.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]

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