PETA wants Prince to ban bear fur for Palace Guards' headgear

Jaipur, Mar 30 (UNI) It's the tale of a Prince and a bear in which the bear has been meeting with a sad end much too often.

The Prince in question here is Prince Charles and the bear is the Canadian black bear, slaughtered for their skin and fur to make the headgear for the Queen's ceremonial guards at Buckingham Palace.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) activists in black Bear costumes have been following Prince Charles on his India tour to attract his attention and convince him to call off this inhuman slaughtering and instead use artificial fur for the guards' headgear.

As Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, arrived at the airport here today, PETA activists Swati Shah and Roshni D'Silva, one of them disguised as a bear and the other holding up a placard against bear slaughter, were able to catch the Prince's eye.

''Since Jaipur's Sanganer airport has only one exit, we stood at the gate. Prince Charles took a look at us and waved at us. He acknowledged our presence but we only hope he gets the message we want to put across,'' Swati said.

''It can take the entire hide of one bear to make just one guard's headpiece. Sometimes these bears are shot several times before they die or they escape the hunters but bleed to death. The skins are shipped from Canada to Britain,'' she added.

In the forests when mother bears are killed, the orphaned cubs are left to fend for themselves who often die as they cannot survive on their own.

''We were able to get quite close to Prince Charles in Delhi but in Chandigarh the police behaved very rudely and shooed us off. We just want to campaign peacefully and make him realise that it makes sense to switch to synthetic materials,'' the 22-year-old Swati, who accompanies the "bear" and carries placard like "Save My Skin", said.

After months of campaigning, PETA Europe, managed to convince the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) to find suitable alternatives to bear skin, as the first trials of faux-fur hats were deemed unacceptable by the ministry.

PETA has given the MoD information on top-notch faux-fur suppliers who could meet all its needs, she added.

However, for now, Queen Elizabeth II and the MoD continue to allow bears to be killed for these hats even as trials are underway.

PETA India Director Ingrid E. Newkirk, said, "Prince Charles is known to be a staunch defender of the environment, so it would make sense for him to oppose the slaughter of black bears for something as frivolous as a ceremonial hat. So until these bearskin hats become extinct, PETA bear will follow Charles at all his public events in Britain and overseas." UNI RRT NK BD1742