One of London’s most popular tourist attractions is the Changing of the Guards Ceremony at Buckingham Palace.  Over the years millions of people have taken photos of this event.  My guess is that many tourists don’t know an act of senseless animal cruelty is behind this “photo op”.  The signature black hats worn by the queen’s guards are made from black bears killed in Canada.  Each hat requires the entire skin of one black bear.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) recently went undercover and obtained videos of Canadian hunters luring hungry mother black bears to bait sites where they were gunned down.  Their cubs were left orphaned.  Footage showed many mothers shot multiple times in front of their cubs as they tried to drag themselves to safety.

What a ridiculous waste of life! These days manufacturers are able to make such realistic “faux fur” there is no defending such senseless slaughter of Canada’s noble black bears.  Around the world wildlife of all varieties are under immense pressure from loss of habitat as the human population explodes.  We don’t need to be cruel for the sake of some silly ceremonial hat.  We might not be able to stop the Canadian government from giving permits to hunters for “sporting purposes” but we can try to shame the British government into stopping the purchase of bear skins.  On behalf of our bears please write to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.  He has the power to instruct the British Ministry of Defense to stop buying the bear skins worn by the queen’s guards.  His address is:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, 10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA