Peta bear followed the Queen through her visit in the Baltic St

Following the tradition, Her Majesty’s guards are wearing hats made of the bearskin since 1815, when the Britain had beaten the French troops in the Battle of Waterloo and adopted the hats from them. However, the guards nowadays are used solely for representative functions.

The manufacturing of these hats requires thousands of bears’ lives every year, as manufacturing of one hat requires a whole skin of one adult bear. Despite public pressure and 200 signatures of the members of British Parliament, the queen’s administration refuses to replace the bearskin with synthetic materials, which are visually identical to natural bear’s fur. Moreover, the black bear is protected by CITES convention and is becoming extinct. Though UK’s government claims that the bears are hunted in Canada, not in the UK, they are contributing to the killing by keeping the demand for the fur.

The action in Lithuania was held by the embassy of UK. Several activists were participating, one of them being dressed in bear’s costume, holding a poster saying “Save my skin”. This is done in every country where the queen travels. Despite the fact that the demonstration was peaceful, two girls (“the bear” and local organizer) were arrested. The police claimed that according to the Lithuania’s legislation (The Gatherings Act) it is forbidden to hide one’s face during the demonstration/gathering, as it shows the intention to do an unlawful action. Besides, they claimed that a demonstration ought to have had a permission from the local authority. However, as the lawyers of the Center on Projects and Investigations of Law (Lithuania) noted, according to the Lithuania’s legislation, no permission is needed if the number of demonstrates does not exceed 10 people. Moreover, the claim that the girl was hiding her face with the intention to break the law is more an absurd, as this was done solely by imitating a bear. Besides, the activist with the costume was under 18 years old. “The police failed to evaluate the situation accordingly” is stated in the press release of the Center.

The action received a lot of attention from mass media, even a special programme about the event on the local TV was shown. In addition, it provoked a discussion in public, as lawyers claimed the arrest to be a violation of human rights. According to the Lithuanian law, activists are to be fined, the amount being defined by the court.

In Latvia the scenario was the same – few local activists were arrested and the costume was confiscated. So unfortunately the bear did not appear in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

More information:

www.unbearablecruelty.com

www.animalrights.lt (in Lithuanian)

http://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/article.php?id=10966506

http://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/article.php?id=11004154 (local media about the event)