By: CHRIS GRAEME
PORTUGUESE ANIMAL activists demonstrated virtually nude in front of the British Embassy last Friday against the Royal Guard’s use of bear fur in ceremonial hats.
The four activists and their supporters, members of the international animal rights and welfare group Acção Animal, are demanding that Her Majesty the Queen and the British Ministry of Defence stop using real black bear fur in ceremonial hats.
Hugo Evangelista, a spokesman for Acção Animal in Portugal, told The Resident that there was “no need in this day and age to cull 100 endangered black bears a year to decorate purely ceremonial hats that had no military importance or significance today other than for the sake of ceremony and tradition.
“We applied for all the necessary permits from the Civil Authorities (Governo Civil) and the police for the demonstration which passed off peacefully, although we weren’t allowed to enter the barricaded part of the street in front of the embassy,” he said.
Cruel
The four activists were completely nude apart from G-string type thongs and synthetic replica hats which they argue the Royal Guard could use just as well.
“The only beings with the right to wear bear fur are bears. It’s ridiculous and cruel to exploit a magnificent and endangered animal such as this for ceremonial or any other purposes,” said Hugo Evangelista.
Part of an international demonstration throughout the summer – activists were demonstrating in front of the British Embassy in Lithuania on Monday – the four members, who also belong to PETA Europe (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), also bared their bottoms which were tattooed with Union Jacks.
However, the impact of the demonstration was largely lost since journalists were told to turn up at 3pm when in fact the activists arrived at around 1.20pm.
The British Embassy was caught on the hop, initially denying they knew anything about the demonstration until receiving phone calls from the media asking for reactions.
“It is necessary to kill and use the fur of the bear to make just one hat. Many of these bears are shot various times before they are killed and others escape the hunters only to die a slow and painful death,” explained Hugo Evangelista.
The tradition of using bear fur in the hats dates back to certain regiments from the Napoleonic Wars and the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
According to a survey commissioned by PETA Europe, around 80 per cent of British citizens questioned thought that using public funds to massacre the Canadian black bear to decorate the ceremonial hats of five regiments of the Royal Guard was unacceptable.
Famous personalities including Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, pop band Pink, film star Sir Roger Moore, Morrissey of The Smiths and 60s icon model Twiggy have all signed petitions to end the practice.
A British Embassy statement said: “The British Ministry of Defence appreciates how strongly many people feel about this issue and is keen to reduce the need for new caps. The Ministry of Defence is not opposed to the use of synthetic materials as an alternative to bear skins, provided that such materials meet the requirements for a high quality product that performs adequately in all weather conditions.
“Regrettably a suitable alternative has not been identified yet. The Ministry of Defence carried out trials of faux fur in 2005 but its performance during typical wet weather conditions was unsatisfactory (the issues surrounding the faux fur are water retention and shape).
“Bears are not killed to fulfil MoD requirements for skins; the pelts used by the MoD are provided by traders operating under Canadian jurisdiction and are certified under the internationally recognised Convention on the Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).”
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