By Vanessa Allen
Last updated at 7:40 AM on 27th December 2010
The Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall came under fire from animal rights campaigners yesterday after they both wore fur hats on Christmas Day.
The Russian-style hats they wore to attend a church service in Sandringham with other members of the Royal Family were made from fur from different types of fox, claimed experts.
Andrew Tyler, director of Animal Aid, said: ‘This strikes me as an ostentatious display of cruelty. To parade fur in 2010 says something unpleasant about the person wearing it.’
The Queen has come under fire from animal rights campaigners for her cream-coloured fur hat and matching fur coat trim, which experts claim was made from fur from different types of fox
The Cossack-style hat worn by Camilla was made from ‘vintage fur’, by designer milliner Philip Treacy, using a piece of fur which had previously belonged to the duchess’s mother.
A spokesman for the Queen said she could not confirm if Her Majesty’s cream-coloured hat and matching coat trim were made from real fur but experts said they were convinced it was.
Many fashion designers continue to use fur in their collections, and campaigners have expressed fears that it has come back into style. They have called on celebrities and members of the Royal Family to ‘set a good example’ by choosing not to wear animal pelts.
The Cossack-style hat worn by Camilla was made from 'vintage fur', using a piece of fur which had previously belonged to the duchess's mother
The Queen has worn fur in the past and her official robes for State occasions are trimmed with ermine, the winter coat of the stoat.
Camilla faced anger from animal rights organisations last year, when she wore fur twice during an official visit to Canada.
First she wore a grey rabbit stole when she visited Newfoundland, together with a hat trimmed with fake fur. She then donned a calf-length cape lined with grey fox fur.
Camilla and Prince Charles walk to the Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene Church
Both pieces were said to have been ‘refashioned’ from vintage fur that had belonged to her grandmother, Sonia Cubitt, Baroness Ashcombe, whose mother, Alice Keppel, was a mistress of Edward VII.
The ethical question of ‘recycling’ vintage fur has split opinion, but Mr Tyler said: ‘It doesn’t matter when the animal was killed, it’s a body part and a product of cruelty.’
In 2000 Prince Edward’s wife Sophie apologised after she was seen wearing a fox fur hat. The Countess of Wessex said her decision to wear the hat on a skiing holiday in St Moritz, Switzerland, was ‘an error of judgment’.
The Queen out-glams her granddaughter Princess Beatrice as they stand together outside the Norfolk church
Legislation to ban fur farming in Britain was passed that same year following a lengthy campaign highlighting the physical and psychological distress suffered by animals in some fur farms.
However, it remains legal to import fur and in China, now the world’s leading fur exporter, millions of animals who are killed for their fur are often skinned alive, according to the campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
A Peta spokesman said: ‘Britain is a nation of animal lovers and more than 90 per cent of Britons refuse to wear fur. We hope that Her Majesty will choose to wear something more humane in future, that better reflects the values of the British people.
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