Queen Camilla Officially Fur-Free, Palace Confirms to PETA U.K.

For Immediate Release:
May 15, 2024

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Buckingham Palace has confirmed to PETA U.K. that Queen Camilla will not procure fur for her wardrobe. In doing so, she follows in the footsteps of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who changed with the times and announced in 2019 that no new items for her wardrobe would contain real fur. This is thought to be the first time Queen Camilla has taken an official stance against the fur industry, in which animals are caged for life or caught in steel traps, electrocuted or subjected to another painful form of killing, and skinned.

“PETA is toasting Queen Camilla with a glass of the finest claret for being a true queen by standing with the 95% of British people who also refuse to wear animal fur, as polls show,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “It’s right and proper for the British monarchy to reflect British values by recognizing that fur has no place in society—and it makes the MoD’s use of real bear fur for the royal guard’s caps ever more preposterous and out of touch.”

For two decades, PETA U.K. has been campaigning to compel the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to end the use of bearskin for the King’s Guard’s caps. A PETA video exposé reveals how bears are baited with food, shot, disemboweled, and dismembered by hunters in Canada so that their fur can be sold—possibly to be used for the purely ornamental headgear.

The disturbing footage shows hunters shooting the unsuspecting animals with crossbows—a form of hunting that has been illegal in the U.K. since 1981 under wildlife protection laws. Many bears are shot several times, and some escape only to die slowly from blood loss, infection, starvation, or dehydration.

It takes the skin of at least one bear to make a single cap. According to public records obtained by PETA U.K., the MoD bought 498 bearskin hats between 2017 and 2022—equating to at least 498 slaughtered bears—even though PETA first offered the ministry a superior faux fur produced by luxury faux furrier ECOPEL in 2017 and ECOPEL has committed to supplying an unlimited amount to the ministry for free for a decade.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.