Celebrity Big Brother Contestant Pete Burns' Vanity May Get Him Arrested: Wearing a Gorilla Skin Coat isn't Only Sick, It's Illegal

Celebrity Big Brother Contestant Pete Burns' Vanity May Get Him Arrested:
Wearing a Gorilla Skin Coat isn't Only Sick, It's Illegal

The title speaks for itself. What a wacko and sicko. I'm glad others are taking
this seriously. He's so damn vain that he can't even see that there's the skin
of a dead gorilla on his back. To him it's a joke, to the gorilla it was life.
Animal rights groups slam Gorilla Pete

http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=

RO1021380J&news_headline=animal_rights_groups_

slam_gorilla_pete

Tuesday, 10th January 2006, 13:27

LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - Animal rights campaigners today urged viewers to vote
Pete Burns off Celebrity Big Brother after he boasted about the'gorilla skin'
coat he has sported on the show.

The flamboyant Dead or Alive star has been warned he could face jail for wearing
an illegal coat made from an endangered aspecies.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said the public needs to join
fellow Big Brother contestant Jodie Marsh in sending a message to Burns about
his love of dead animal skins.

PETA's Yvonne Taylor said: "We are calling on our supporters and everyone who
cares about animals to vote Pete out of the house.

"The coat looks dry and dull on Pete Burns - not beautiful bright and glossy
like it does on its original owner, swinging through the canopy of the forest."

Burns had claimed that the coat was made from gorilla fur but experts were
doubtful, suggesting it is more likely to be from the colobus monkey - a highly
endangered west African species.

Cyril Rosen, secretary of the Internatonal Primate Protection League, said: "It
looks like a Colobus skin to me but it would take an awful lot of monkeys. They
were heavily hunted at the beginning of the twentieth century when around
6,000,000 were killed for their fur. They were nearly driven to extinction and
recovered only when fashions changed. It is on the red list of endganered
species and there are now probably little more than a few thousand left."

Burns love of exotic furs could bring him into conflict with the law.

Biodiversity minister Jim Knight has warned the ex-singer that he could face
"serious consequences" for wearing an endangered species. Trading in endangered
animal body parts can be punished with a sentence of up to five years in jail
and an unlimited fine.

Mr Knight said: "Gorilla skins belong on gorillas, not on reality TV show
contestants."

PETA's Yvonne Taylor said: "Even if it's vintage it's still wrong. By wearing it
he promotes the idea that wearing the fur of dead animals is beautiful and
glamourous. But its not."

She added: "To be fair to Pete, he said when he joined Big Brother that he
didn't know much about the fur trade. If he is voted out we will speak to him
and explain why the trade is so wrong. We want him to donate the coat to PETA so
that we can use it on protests."

Burns' love of fur doesn't appear to have won him many friends. He faces
eviction on Friday along with Jodie Marsh and George Galloway.

Yvonne Taylor said: "Its certainly not making him popular in the house - Jodie
Marsh has already taken him to task - and it's not making him popular in the
country either."