The first event I wanted to cover on Saturday 14 July was a march calling on the ‘Ministry of Defence’ to stop using real animal fur in its uniforms. On Whitehall we have an Old War Office from the days when they didn’t mince words and weren’t afraid to name spades. Opposite it on Horse Guards Ave is a vast and sinister looking building, a truly Orwellian edifice in appearance and name, the Ministry of Defence. And some of those guards who stand around at Horse Guards opposite and in front of Buck Palace as a tourist attraction do so in silly large furry caps, which I’d call a busby.
Canadian black bears are hunted and shot for the fur to make these. Hunting is often a cruel way to kill animals, with many being wounded and taking some time to die, perhaps escaping the hunters to die slowly in the woods.
Apparently the MoD (short for Ministry of Warmongers) has promised it would stop using fur in uniforms, but claims it can’t find a suitable replacement for these caps. There are of course perfectly good synthetic furs, but these somehow can’t meet the ministry specifications. Probably because these specify that they must include the dried blood of a hunted animal. These really are just hats, consderably less useful in war than a chocolate teapot (which you could at least eat.) Not only is using real fur cruelty to animals, it is also cruelty to taxpayers, part of the phenomenal overspend the MoD specialises in.
I was told to be there for 10.00 sharp, and arrived a few minutes later to find it was raining rather hard, and things seemed unlikely to get going for a very long time. So I left them for my next assignment, half and hour away in north London. I worked out I had time to cover that and make the journey back to the finishing point of the PETA march, Marble Arch around the time they should be coming up Park Lane.
By the time I got to Marble Arch, the rain had almost stopped and I found a dry spot to sit down, read a book and eat my sandwiches. I took a trip on the bus down to Hyde Park Corner to see if I could see them coming, but there was no sign of them, and I’d forgotten to write down the route they were taking. So I went back to Marble Arch to wait.
Around 1pm a small group of police motorcyclists arrived, and I knew something was expected. Ten minutes later I saw them in the distance coming along the west carriageway of Park Lane and rushed down to take a few pictures as they marched along. I found it a little difficult as things were too uniform, everyone marching dressed in black, and holding the same circular notice, and although most of them had bear masks, these were mainly on the top of people’s heads.
At Marble Arch they stood and posed for a few minutes for photographs, and were told to put their masks on, and things got rather easier to photograph. Most of the other photographers seemed busy taking the overall view with the banner and Marble Arch, but although I took a frame or two it didn’t interest me. First I went into the crowd behind the front row or two so I could work without spoiling their view, and concentrated on some closer views of marchers, then I came back to the front and was able to work more closely there as the others already had their pictures.
For my lead image on Demotix I have to have one in landscape format, but I think the picture I chose is actually better in the portrait version.
and I took several versions of this, though I can’t decide which is best, which is usually a bad sign. There were a few images I quite liked, but really the less than five minutes at Marble Arch wasn’t quite long enough for me to get the most out of the event.
More pictures at PETA ‘Spare the Bears’ March on My London Diary, and you can also see pictures from the other event I covered that morning, a very wet protest outside a letting agent’s offices on the Holloway Rd who take £300 deposits from people desperate for homes and fail to refund this when they decline to find anywhere suitable for them to live. It was raining hard all the time I was there and I was pleased to get anything usable for Tenants Protest Letting Agents Scam.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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