Video: Bryan Adams Calls Out Canadian Military for Violent Slaughter of Bears

For Immediate Release:
May 9, 2024

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Ottawa –

Bryan Adams has a message for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF): Lose the bearskin caps. In a new video for PETA, the “Summer of ’69” hitmaker and officer of the Order of Canada reveals how bears endure agonizing, prolonged deaths for the fur used to make the purely ornamental headpieces. As PETA’s investigative footage shows, recreational hunters in Ontario deliberately bait the animals with buckets of smelly, greasy food and shoot them with crossbows before disemboweling and dismembering them. Hunters often keep bears’ body parts as trophies and sell their skins to buyers, including the capmakers who use them to create ceremonial headgear, like the hats worn by members of the CAF and the King’s Guard in the U.K.

“Shot bears don’t always die right away. Desperate and in pain, some bears flee the hunters and endure a slow, painful death from infection or blood loss,” Adams, a longtime vegan and native of Kingston, Ontario, says in the video. “Nursing mothers are sometimes shot, leaving behind cubs who starve, unable to survive on their own.”

Dead bear lies on grass with arrow in their back — *PETA’s disturbing investigation shows hunters luring bears with buckets of sweet or greasy food before shooting the unsuspecting animals with crossbows.*
*Credit: PETA*

It takes the skin of at least one bear to make a single military cap. State-of-the-art faux fur developed by PETA U.K. and luxury faux furrier ECOPEL has been shown in tests to mimic real bear fur in both appearance and performance—meaning that there’s absolutely no excuse for the CAF or the King’s Guard to use hats made of the fur of slaughtered bears.

“The Canadian government is endorsing this cruelty by using real bear fur on its military caps, even though military-grade faux bear fur now exists,” Adams says in conclusion. “Tell the Canadian government to end the cruelty and go fur-free.”

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.