Julian Clary Implores Queen To Ban Guards’ Bearskin Hats
For Immediate Release:
7 May 2003
Contact:
Dawn Carr 020 7357 9229, ext. 224
London – Popular TV personality Julian Clary, best known for his outrageous costumes and endless stream of sexual double entendres, has written to Her Majesty the Queen on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), urging HRH to command the Ministry of Defence to stop using black bears’ skins for the headpieces worn by the Queen’s Guards. ‘From one queen to another, I am writing to beseech Your Royal Highness to replace the Guards’ bearskin caps with an elegant, non-lethal material’, writes Clary, who was deeply moved by the news that the bears are shot in cold blood. Mr. Clary, currently on tour with his show Natural Born Mincer, wants the Guardsmen’s heads bared of bearskins right away.
Clary first made public his compassion for animals when he appeared on TV for many years with his beloved canine companion Fanny the Wonder Dog, whom he adopted at a re-homing centre for stray and unwanted animals and who has since died. He currently lives with a dog named Valerie and a cat called Gloria.
It takes the entire hide of one to two bears to make just one Guardsman’s headpiece. The skins come from bears shot in Canada—many are shot several times before they die, while some escape the hunters only to bleed to death. When mother bears are killed, orphaned cubs who cannot survive on their own are left behind.
Last year, PETA wrote to the Queen offering assistance in finding a faux fur substitute for the Guards’ headpieces and calling on Her Majesty to make amends for wearing a mink coat while visiting Canada.
For more information, please visit PETAUK.org.
Julian Clary’s letter to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II follows.
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Julian Clary
Sir Robin Janvrin
The Private Secretary to
Her Majesty the Queen
Buckingham Palace
London SW1A 1AA
Dear Sir,
If you would kindly submit my request for Her Majesty’s consideration, I would be most grateful.
When People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told me that real bearskin – stripped from the bodies of black bears killed in their North American forest homes – continues to warm the heads of Your Majesty’s Household Guards, I was appalled. Erroneous reports had led me to believe that the use of real bearskin was abandoned years ago.
From one queen to another, I am writing to beseech Your Royal Highness to replace the Guards’ bearskin caps with an elegant, nonlethal material. Certainly I understand and appreciate the importance of costume, but a bear is made of flesh and blood, not fabric.
Please contact me through PETA’s Dawn Carr on 020 7397 9229, extension 224, or via fax on 020 7357 0901 to let us know that you will urge the Ministry of Defence to commit to a fur-free policy with all due haste. Thank you.
Most respectfully yours,
Julian Clary