Kate Ford Bares All For Bears In New PETA Ad

For Immediate Release:
9 May 2010

Contact:
Martin Mallon +44 (0) 207 357 9229, ext. 224; [email protected]

London – She may play a villainous vixen on Coronation Street, but Kate Ford is a softie when it comes to animals. She is especially angry over the suffering that bears in Canada endure when they are baited, shot, killed and skinned for The Queen’s Guards’ bearskin caps. So Ford has just shot a sexy PETA ad that reads “Bare Skin, Not Bearskin”. The ad is part of PETA’s campaign to persuade the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to stop killing bears for the Buckingham Palace Guards’ ceremonial headwear. The ad was shot by ace photographer Karl Grant, and it is being released to coincide with Ford’s return to Coronation Street.

“I would never have dreamed of posing nude, but when PETA showed me the footage of the bears being shot and skinned just for the sake of these ornamental Guards’ caps, I decided to be brave and show some of my skin in the hope that the MoD will let the bears keep theirs”, says Ford. “The cowardly hunters even bait the bears with food before ambushing them. When mother bears are killed, their cubs are left to slowly starve to death. This breaks my heart. I think it is despicable of the MoD to use taxpayers’ money to fund this cruelty overseas when there are synthetic faux furs available.”

PETA US captured video footage of Canadian bears as they were killed by a method called “bait and shoot”, a cruel practice in which bears are lured to barrels of food and shot at close range. Many bears are shot several times, and some escape and die slowly from blood loss, gangrene, starvation or dehydration. When mother bears are killed, orphaned cubs are left behind to starve. Typically, 70 per cent of orphaned cubs die within one year. Hunters have been caught on film making racist and sexist jokes while reducing bears from living beings to roll-up skins.

Ford joins many other celebrities – including Pamela Anderson, Lucy Davis, Morrissey, Julian Clary, Sadie Frost, Mary McCartney, Sir Roger Moore, Twiggy, Jilly Cooper, Hayley Mills and Amanda Holden – who have condemned the slaughter of bears for The Queen’s Guards’ ceremonial caps.

A high-resolution version of the ad is attached. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.