Photos: PETA ‘Spiders’ Expose MoD’s Web of Lies About Bearskin Caps

Photos: PETA ‘Spiders’ Expose MoD’s Web of Lies About Bearskin Caps

London – Today, PETA “spiders” wove their webs outside the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Main Building to highlight the web of lies that defence minister Ben Wallace has spun about the suitability of the faux bear fur PETA has helped create to replace the bearskins used to make the Queen’s Guard’s caps. Although the faux fur matches the exact length of real bearskin, performs similarly in “water shedding” tests, and is 100% waterproof, the MoD disingenuously claims that no suitable non-animal alternative is available. The MoD is also misleading the public about the killing of the bears whose skin is used for the caps.

More images are available here.

“In a desperate attempt to cling to its cruel traditions, the MoD is making laughable assertions about the faux bear fur – despite never having placed a cap made from the fabric on a single guard’s head,” says PETA Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner. “The world’s most celebrated and accomplished designers have all ditched real fur, and if they can do it, so can the MoD.”

PETA notes that 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. When mother bears are killed, their cubs are left to starve. Despite the MoD’s claims that bears are killed as part of Canadian government culls, PETA has found no evidence that any culls of this sort exist in any province or territory of Canada.

Wallace has a long history of actively opposing any switch to faux fur for the caps. PETA has launched a government e-petition on the issue, which, if it reaches 100,000 signatures, will trigger a parliamentary debate, restoring the power to the British public to demand a modern, humane alternative that would save taxpayers money and spare bears’ lives. For more information about the misinformation peddled by the MoD about the use of bearskins, please see here.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on the group’s newsgathering and investigative reporting, 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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