Photos: ‘Guards’ Drench Themselves in ‘Blood’ Ahead of Parliamentary Bearskins Debate

 Photos: ‘Guards’ Drench Themselves in ‘Blood’ Ahead of Parliamentary Bearskins Debate

London – Today, ahead of a milestone debate in Parliament in which MPs will discuss replacing the bearskins used for the Queen’s Guard’s caps with faux fur, a group of PETA supporters dressed as guards poured “blood” over themselves at Westminster Bridge. PETA’s “troops” also marched, carrying signs reading, “MoD: End the Bloodbath for Bears.”

Images are available here and video footage is available here.

The debate follows the unveiling of the world’s first faux bear fur – created by PETA and luxury faux furrier ECOPEL – which looks and performs exactly like the bearskin used to make the Queen’s Guard’s caps. The faux-fur fabric meets all the Ministry of Defence (MoD) requirements: it matches the exact length of real bear fur, is 100% waterproof, and performs similarly in water shedding and compression tests. It even outperforms bear fur in drying rate testing. But the ministry still disingenuously claims that no suitable non-animal alternative is available.

“The MoD has always maintained that its support of the bloody slaughter of Canadian black bears would end as soon as a suitable alternative was available,” says PETA Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner. “That day has now come, and it’s high time the new faux-fur cap was quick-marched into service.”

It takes the skin of at least one bear to make a single cap. Some bears are shot several times before they die, and some escape only to bleed to death.

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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