PETA unveil new anti-fur campaign

Image courtesy of PETA

I absolutely adore the new PETA advert depicting a traditionally uniformed member of the Queen’s Guard with a severed bear head on- keeping his head warm in place of the traditional Busby hat we’re accustomed to seeing. This great image is part of a campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against the use of bearskin helmets by guardsmen. The group wants the Ministry of Defence to switch to fake fur, as it claims each helmet uses the entire pelt of a Canadian black bear, which for me is a pretty horrific estimation and I can’t believe this fact is not already in the public’s consciousness!

I think they’ve got it spot on in terms of high impact, and I think it’s great that they are consistently working so hard, and with this new campaign targeting the very heart of Great Britain – the MoD and the Royal Family – hopefully people will take notice and as a country we can slowly change our attitudes towards fur.

Its sounds a bit wrong but I quite love that it’s a digitally enhanced image with lots of blood and gore as for me this is much more appropriate than former campaigns which have seen all manner of female celebrities photographed getting their clothes off. Whilst I appreciate that these ladies are using their profiles to help the cause I don’t feel that the campaigns depicted the reality of the situation and were hard hitting enough, so for me this bold move can only pay off. I for one cannot wait for the posters featuring a blood-drenched Guard to be put on the side of 25 London buses– I think the reaction will be amazing.

At present the MoD are staunchly defending their bear maiming practices - such a colonialist attitude, I’m sure you’ll agree - but have conceded that they’re not opposed to trialling synthetic materials as long as they ‘meet the requirement for a high-quality product that performs adequately in all weather conditions’.