dpa
London
Britain’s Queen Camilla has pledged to buy no new fur products for her wardrobe, animal rights group Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has revealed.
Buckingham Palace sent the organization Camilla’s "warmest wishes” as it confirmed her stance on the issue.
Camilla is following in the footsteps of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who switched to faux fur for new outfits from 2019. Peta founder Ingrid Newkirk said: "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.
"It’s right and proper for the British monarchy to reflect British values by recognising that fur has no place in our society” and it makes the MoD’s (Ministry of Defence) use of real bear fur for the royal guards’ caps ever more preposterous and out of touch.”
Peta has been campaigning for the MoD to end the use of bearskin for the King’s Guards’ caps for more than two decades. The letter, which was dated April 15, typed on Buckingham Palace-headed notepaper and from the head of royal correspondence, read: "In response to your query, I can confirm that Her Majesty will not procure any new fur garments.” It added: "This comes with the Queen?s warmest wishes.” The recently unveiled coronation roll, a handwritten record of the King and Queen’s crowning, was the first to use paper, not the usual animal skin, reflecting King Charles’s animal welfare views.
But both the King and Queen wore fur at the coronation, with ermine capes on their robes and historic crowns trimmed in ermine. Charles opted for his grandfather George VI’s robes, while Camilla wore Elizabeth II’s Robe of State and a newly made Robe of Estate with ermine believed to have been reused from a past robe.
Peta had offered to supply Charles with new fur-free robes free of charge ahead of the ceremony. Camilla was criticised by the group in 2009 after she was spotted wearing a rabbit fur stole during a tour to Canada.