Gotta love PETA. Just gotta love ‘em. Well, not really.
One of the animal rights group’s more obscure pressure campaigns involves trying to convince the Queen of England to give up the natural black-bear fur hats that Buckingham Palace guards have worn for 200 years. Because — y’know — British monarchs have always responded so well to public pressure from nitwits.
Are black bears endangered? Nope. The species covers most of North America. And black bear populations are growing in Canada, where Her Majesty’s funny hats come from.
So what’s the big deal? PETA hates people who wear fur. And they’ll praise anyone who parrots back the anti-fur party line. Even if they’re wearing leather while they do it.
This is fun.
Meet Michael Le Vell, a British actor who has played the part of Kevin Webster on the popular soap opera Coronation Street since 1983. PETA has their hooks in half the cast of this soap, who are now calling on the Ministry of Defence to get rid of the aforementioned real fur hats.
Le Vell showed up to the photo-shoot in a leather jacket. PETA promoted the picture anyway. If there’s a moral to this story it’s that perhaps cows and bears ought to be protected species. But soap-opera actors and animal activists should be culled as quickly as possible.
My favorite quote from this whole Battle Royale came from British Lieutenant Colonel Peter Dick-Peter (yes, that’s his real name …), who complained to the BBC about the fake-fur substitute that PETA recommended. “It looks like a ’60s Beatle wig.” I have to agree.
So stupid…the hats have been part of a British tradition. Why not go after Elizabeth the First for wearing fur for her coronation? Or even the current Queen for the fur-trimmed royal robe that has part of royal traditional wear since, oh, say…..the FIRST CENTURY?!
any fool knows not to show up at an event like that in a leather jacket.. omg, people’s stupidity is just insane.
Are we sure that’s not a fake leather jacket? It’s still a dumb idea to wear it in a PETA ad even if it just looks like animal skin…
Have you considered it was not animal leather but an artificial varient?
So you know for a fact that the jacket he is wearing is leather? If it turns out that it’s actually pleather or some other type of imitation leather you’d look even stupider than PETA, which is quite a feat.
Of course, if it is leather than it’s hilarious.
Come on … If that were a “pleather” jacket, don’t you think the PETA people would have made a big, big deal about it?
They can only get a handful of celebutards to wear the stuff, so every time someone famous puts it on, it’s like a freakin’ holiday.
Definitely real leather, people. The ABSENCE of a PETA press release is all the proof you need.
i seriously doubt someone on a soap star’s income is wearing fake leather.
The argument to continue using bear fur is that is been used for so long? Tradition is a backward reason to impede progress. Using real black fur doesn’t do anyone any good. I hope the stubborn Brits that want to keep skinning bears don’t point at other cultures that harm the environment.
That does not look like real leather to me. Who wrote this tripe?
PETA needs to go away, but if they aren’t, they need to pick their battles a little more intelligently. Granted, they get their panties in a twist over the killing of the not at all endangered cow for burgers, but along that same vein, black bears are nowhere near endangered. I’m not a supporter of the fur industry, but for crying out loud, this is idiotic. Then, coming from PETA, just about anything is idiotic, and they undermine their own cause with their limitless stupidity.
As for the leather, possibly pleather jacket, if they weren’t limitless in their stupidity, they might have asked he not wear it for the photo shoot.
It’s groups like PETA that make all animal lovers look bad, and I hate them with all my being.
The one thing that is not pointed out here is that the bearskin comes only from bears which die of natural causes. No bears are killed to make the hats. Of course, this is the group which inhumanely slaughters the vast majority of animals they take in and have roving murder vans which pick up feral animals to routinely slaughter them through drowning or other inhumane means. Details are here: http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
If it’s pleather, that’s even worse. Pleather is made from vinyl, which is made from…gasp!….PETROLEUM! That’s right, folks, petroleum, the global warming planet killer! So if he’s wearing leather, he only slaughtered one cow. If he’s wearing pleather, he’s trying to kill us all! Run for your lives!
Even if the jacket is pleather, it is still re-enforcing the fasion type of leather jackets as being acceptable to wear.
Peta is as cruel or even more so as the people they protest..
Watch the PETA episode of Penn and Tellers Bullsh*t if you don’t believe me
PETA is pathetic.These people have euthanasia vans that travel the United States for the express purpose of killing animals.More than half of the animals they claim to “rescue’ evry year die horrible deaths in these vans.
Just ATTENDING a PeTA function proves you’re a moron. Why is anyone surprised by any of this?
I don’t support PETA. I don’t beileve the horror stories about them either.
I don’t understand why people insist on harming animals.
Give me one reason why they shouldn’t change their hats to a synthetic material.
Okay, Justin … Try it this way:
I don’t understand why people insist on harming the planet.
Give me one reason why they shouldn’t change their transportation habits and stop driving cars.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Choices are a bitch.
Well, it’s really the only way to get at their tasty flesh.
well “simon” it’s just not right if it’s done inhumanely and “the overseer” people have to drive to work and school! public transportation doesnt always come right by those places.
It should be pointed out…that everyone in Virginia and Norfolk,Virginia (headquarters for PETA) knows PETA is a joke.
They have also been investigated and found guilty for killing cats and dogs,and then dumping them in industrial trashcans behind local Hampton Roads grocery stores.
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
As a Canadian the last thing I want are black bears running loose all over the place.
From the Timesonline
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article520675.ece
“Guards take aim at bearskins”
The Household Division has countered the animal rights’ case with the defence that none of the bears culled has been killed because of an order for bearskins from the Army.
A spokesman for the Household Division, which comprises the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards, Irish Guards and Welsh Guards, said: “Twenty thousand black bears have to be culled in North America each year, from which we buy fewer than 100 pelts a year for the Guards’ bearskin caps.”
“Are black bears endangered? Nope. The species covers most of North America. And black bear populations are growing in Canada, where Her Majesty’s funny hats come from.”
So! Black bears are NOT endangered!…so, I guess that means we should kill them, huh?
Humans are far from endangered…So doesnt that mean its ok to kill them too then?
4 humans are born every second.
Thats alot of ‘leather’ for you animal haters to wear.
PETA has some pretty crummy ‘leaders’ and a real lousy PR department. But WHY does that give you all an excuse to hate animals?
I guess it makes you feel better about your own shortcomings, yes?
How sad.
>I don’t support PETA. I don’t beileve the horror stories about them either.
Belief in this instance is besides the point.
Belief doesn’t change the facts, which are available in the public record.
http://www.petakillsanimals.com
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You may think that the intensity with which you believe or feel something is an indication of its truth.
That’s a common error, and you just made it.
Wow … I didn’t know God had an Earthlink account in Atlanta. You learn something new every day.
Who said it’s done inhumanely? And maybe you never heard of bicycles? That’s what people used for transportation back in the olden days, before we had cars.
Maybe we should go back to wearing what people used to wear back in the olden days, too.
Oops — That’s fur.
Alright, I have to stick up for my buddy. I’m a close friend of Le Vell’s and you probably already know who I am. But yes it is a real leather coat. The fact that some of you think it isn’t is hilarious. He admitted to me this was silly, but the real truth is the fact that you are blowing this up into being a big deal. You’ve never made a mistake? We both agreed that the Peta people are the big retards for not catching this.
Get a life, and leave Le Vell alone.
Y’know, in all seriousness, I think we’re treating the subject with exactly the right level of “big deal.”
In PETA’s world-view, cows and bears are equal to people. So showing up to an anti-fur photo shoot wearing a leather coat is akin to arriving at a Civil Rights march wearing a white hood.
I’m just saying …
Of course, who doesn’t?
“Alright, I have to stick up for my buddy. I’m a close friend of Le Vell’s and you probably already know who I am. But yes it is a real leather coat.”
No I don’t know who you are, but I know your buddy won the UK lottery a few years back and the part he was playing then in “The Street” was just has stupid as the trick he pulled here.
Oh and God, go back an re read my post where these bears are CULLED no killed for the “funny hats” as you call them. By the way your country has been around awhile now do you think you will ever get any thing worth keeping?
I’m with “God” we’ll start culling humans instead. Starting with peta. I need a couple new human skin lamp shades anyway.
Hey Close friend of Le Vell. Who are you? C’mon tell us! Dr. Who? Benny Hill? The tall, grumpy guy from Top Gear? I NEED TO KNOW!
of the billions of animals killed world wide for food every year, you’re saying its all done humanely? (note: i’m not for PETA, i’m just saying)
i live in san francisco and i take something called BART to school, it’s like a subway. they don’t allow bikes during commute times on any of the trains, so even if i wanted to take a bike on there so i could get to school a little faster, i couldn’t. i don’t have to walk that far but what about the people who do?
and im pretty sure people wore fur back in the day because they didn’t have any other alternatives to keep warm, like we do now.
Black Bears are in no way an endangered species - and if any of you PETA supporters gave a damn about the environment, as opposed to giving a damn about optics, you’d support the fur industry. What’s that? SUPPORT the fur industry?
Yes. Fur is biodegradable. So-called “faux fur” is made of petrochemicals, and will eventually break down into a poisonous, toxic mess. I know what side of the divide I’m on - and I don’t need well-intentioned but misinformed television stars or their handlers at PETA to make my mind up for me, thank you very much.
If the hats are made from the fur of bears that died of natural causes, then the bears aren’t purposely slaughtered to make the hats and there’s nothing inhumane going on here. So why are we even having this discussion?
Seriously, I’m confused.
PETA thinks that merely displaying the bear-skin furs will increase the demand for commercial sale of more of it, regardless of how it was procured.
And I’m not so sure they’re wrong. Let’s say you hit a hog while going 70 MPH on your average highway. (dream with me…) You stop and curse the luck that bent your front fender, and then decide to claim the pork-belly as your just compensation.
The next morning, your neighbors are awoken to the smell of bacon. Lots of bacon. The aroma wafts down the block. There’s no avoiding it. By noon-time, there’s a run on bacon at every grocery store within 3 miles.
Are you starting to see where I’m going here? Yes? Good. Because frankly, I’ve forgotten. I just have a hankering for bacon.
So the next time I hop on the train and go into London, seeing the Buckingham Palace guards in their big bear hats is going to compel me to plan a bear hunting trip in Canada so that I can have a nifty hat too. PETA is idiotic.
if PETA fell off the face of the earth tomorrow it couldnt be soon enough….Get over it..People use the rest of the animal not justthe fur for crying out loud…
Thanks for the explanation, Oversneer. I too now have a hankering for bacon.
Mmm, bacon, rghrghrgh…
I really don’t understand why Peta is so up in arms over these bear fur hats. Maybe it’s because I live in a place where bears outnumber people 5-1, or maybe because I know people who have been attacked by bears, either way it seems silly to me. If the animals die of natural causes, why make a fuss? Isn’t people for the ethical treatment of animals and not people for the ethical treatment of corspes? Besides if these bears had some of these peta reps hanging around there hood, I somehow doubt the bears would kill them humanely. If anyone has doubts about that here are some links that should clear any misconceptions.
http://www.igorilla.com/gorilla/animal/Bear_kills_two__injures_two_in_Brit.htm
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/06/10/bear050610.html
Of course PETA want a bloke with a leather jacket in the advert. They don’t want to be seen to be giving males wearing leather a hard time!! Too much like taking on a biker group such as…..
Well, you fill in the gaps. When PETA, or one of its similar groups, starts its usual display outside a Harley store I wonder what sort of reception it will get!
Bear skin hats, fur coats, leather shoes and jackets. Just where will this go……
SG
Can somebody please round up all the PETA idiots,and put them on an island.Fur has been around for a long time.I eat meat,and my wife wears fur.Get a life PETA….
I think it’s quite funny that people who wear fur are considered cruel, evil, animal haters.
I love my children, my husband, my family, my friends, my neighbors. I love my cats, and my dog. They are part of my family. I donate my free time to help others and my community. I am always genuinely friendy to everybody who crosses my path in life. And I teach my children to love, not to hate.
I think meat is delicious, and I love my fox coat. Do I enjoy animals being killed? Of course not. I think most fur wearers believe animals are treated decently and killed as quickly and painless as possible. I know this is not the case everywhere(China), but don’t hate the lady in the fur, hate the few who show no compassion.
P.S. we don’t have to agree, but if everybody was respectful of each other’s opinions, the world would be a much more peaceful place.
Thanks for publishing this.
When I was a child I could never undertand why those who lived in urban areas are so dumb when it comes to what goes on in the countryside. They were for example anti fox hunting yet what I saw was habitat protected by traditional animal farming and fox hunting.
Then, as I grew up much of the countryside changed; where the Hunt once rode and they kept the fox coverts there were housing esates. Where the great crested newt and the otter once swam the rivers and stream were poisoned. Where there were once sheep and red kite overhead there were intensive agriculural crops or out of town shopping malls.
Nobody said anything; and yet the same people who did this great crime against nature were suddenly saying things like hunting and animal farming were cruel.
As I travelled Europe as I grew older, I realised it was the same story everywhere.
Twelve years ago I was in the Czech republic and a friend took me to a fur farm. The welfare was very good, and the rabbit is used for meat and also fur felt. I could not see the ethical differnce between ma and fur. In fact, I sill can’t understand it. Does an animal give permission to kill it for meat but not fur? Of course not. Do we need to eat meat. No. Its a luxury. In fact, I am very unhappy about the welfare I have seen on factory meat farms; and it bemuses me that people can eat a ÂŁ1.99 chicken and object to fur. Because since on my travels, I always asked to go to fur producing areas. What I saw everywhere was the best animal welfare practices of all; and the fact that small communities that survived on this keep the countryside free of urban invasion and economic development for things like intensive crops. In additon, I began to speak with native people in Canada Nunavut and the Sami in scandinavia and the Siberian peoples. All were furious with western prejudice against their fur trade. in Poland where I went to buy a horse, I underwent something of an odyssey in this dirction; meeting fascinating rural people who fed nutria meat to wolves when it didn’t end up on the menu of a Polish or Czech pub. It is coypu. The fur is fantastic; and their management of them as a resource admirable. In Britain, we wiped them out of existence just a few years ago. A crime IMHO. So I now use nutria fur.
In northern Scanidnava I saw amazing animals like wolverine in the forests where fur is produced, and reindeer herds. The alternative economic activity open to them is to destroy the foress for cheap wood furniture which people do not think twice about buying then chucking when the fashion changes. The fur trade I have seen is thw only thing stopping the bulldozers and logging.
I made myself a promise. I have always been interested in fashion and if life had not taken me in the direction of a Fine Artist specialising in animals, I would have gone to fashion college.
So I resolved that if ever I could, and for sound ecological principles (I am a strong Conservation lobbyist) I would source furs from the places had been and the people I had spoken too, and use them in a small collection. The more fascism and ignorance I encountered from groups llke PETA made me more resolved to do it. I have now done it in a small way, and am also supporting the designs of a young Czech fur designer who thinks similar to me. In a very real way I see how what I am doing is protecting habitat from modern development by supporting small fur producers in rural areas, often wilderness. I have also seen the production on SAGA fur farms and the animals are the best cared for I have ever seen of all agricultural animals. From just norh of there, I am talking to Sami as I wrote this about incoroprating their reindeer lather into my range. It will all be small; maybe just 12 items; but it’s ethically conceptual not financial motivated. I want people to think before they condemn.
Does NOBODY see that the areas that produce fur have the greatest wilderness; the best habitat protection, the most amazing animals? Many of these bearskins for busbies are produced by the Cree Indians; whose Consevation record is second to none. FUR PRODUCTION protects HABITAT.
The Coronation cast supporting PETA is just hysterical: talk about urban ignorance.
Well I have a reaction for them from the native hunters of Siberia:
“Where are your bear in urban Britain? You didn’t kill them for fur and meat; you killed them to build your Coronation streets. Now you destroy your songbirds with your modern ignorance. Look after your own wildlife; and we will look after ours. Because we need them to trade for fur, they will always be plentiful. And know it is our way of life, not Peta’s stupdity, that means the Tiger’s last sanctuary is here.”
You may wish to read how the siberian hunter (oh yes and by the way the eat the bear there too) directly does this and the result is a beautiful sable coat:
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E6DA1038F934A15751C1A9669C8B63 - 44k
That is why true Conservationists support them now and the WWF and World Conservation Union fully support areas of indgenous traditional use. It shouldn’t take a genius to work out re. the busbies that culling a few brown bears actually protects the more vulnrable grizzly and kodiak. Also, animals rights groups like ifaw are consistently refused entry to the World Conservation Union as they are regarded as dangerous to Conservation principles.
Check out the Fur is Green Campaign and before you think it’s fur trade propaganda , realise this. That it is the work of Paula Lishman the Canadian fashion designer who’s husband is William Lishman the famous Conservationist;
http://www.furcouncil.com/ecological.aspx
I am not using fur in designs to make money. As an Artist I am doing it conceptually to make people question how we think about renewable resources because its cheap mass produced synthetic clothing made from oil and abusive cotton production that is the real danger to animals long term. I am creating a concept of beautiful durable clothes that support small poduction, rural economies, and protect habitat as a result. I also use Scottish tweed for example. I am also doing it to make people question the whole idea of a dumbed down society in which people take more notice of soap stars and animal rights fascists than conservationists.
I live in Wales, have a horse, and on the land around are many sheep. The red Kite still flies here and as long a there is a demand for sheep there shall always be lambs in spring and the kite and buzzard will fly overhead. The fox will prey on them, and the Hunt shall chase it away. The free range ducklings and chickens will sometimes fall prey to the mink. This is nature. We are part of it. If there are too many rabbits we call the ferre man; to many rats the terrier man, too many pigeons we shoot and eat them or call the hawk man. It is how things have always been here.
When I get my horse from his stable I look that two swallow chicks have gone from their nest. The magpie has been. I go to the tack room for the saddle and see the owl chicks , who screech at me to get out of their place. I ride to the forest and on the way rescue a lamb from the ravens. And on the edge of the forest look down over the landscape. The bio fuel crops and urban expansion are slowly eating it all away. I am joined by the Master of Hounds, though he is not hunting that day. In summer the fox is not hunted as it rears is young. A vixen and her cubs play nearby.
“Is all going to vanish isn’t it?” he says sadly with a sigh “and they (nodding at the foxes) will be first to go because of those who profess to protect them”.
I smile.
“No…it is the reign of urban ignorance that is finished not us.” I say with a smile.
Bio fuels have caused a world food shortage; and he change of land use from animal to intensive crop caused wildlife devastation.
Soya and palm oil plantations are devastating habitats of spotted cats protected for thiry years yet decline rapidly.
The appalling damage of the Aral sea by cotton has halted as the people return to fishing.
Let us hope that the British Guards always wear the busbies with pride knowing that doing so protects the Canadian wilderness from this madness too.
The great land grab that animal rights ideology has covered up for is now exposed and it stops now. Please do your bit to support traditional animal use with good land management and good welfare practices, remember that animals are an infinitely renewable resource, and therefore our wildlife the world over will prosper. Put the ignorant in their place. Thankyou to this site for doing just that by exposing this stupidity of PETA and the coronation street cast. Elsie Tanner a great fur fan will be turning in her grave.