Britain's Next Top Model Contestants Pose For PETA Campaigns

3 November 2017

Animal rights was the theme of this week's episode of Britain's Next Top Model, and to support the cause, the 11 contestants put their skills to the test in provocative campaigns aimed at exposing the cruelty of the fur industry, animal circuses, and bullfighting.

Tamsin Hough

In collaboration with animal charity PETA, they posed with realistic skinned "animals" for ads proclaiming, "Here's the Rest of Your Fur Coat." In other shots, models took the place of tigers beaten into performing circus tricks and bulls tormented and stabbed to death in bullfighting rings.

Made in Chelsea star Lucy Watson, who previously worked with PETA on her own anti-fur campaign, appeared as the episode's guest judge, helping to name Kira MacLean the challenge's winner.

"Top models from Christy Turlington to Pamela Anderson have long used their influence to inspire change for animals," says PETA US Vice President Dan Mathews, who was on hand during the shoot. "When fashion industry leaders speak up, people listen, and now, the whole world is listening to the women of Britain's Next Top Model speak out against abusing animals for fur, circuses, and bullfights. It's clear that this year's competition features not just model contestants but also models of compassion."

Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to tiny, barren cages before being killed by poisoning, gassing, or electrocution. When tigers and elephants in circuses aren't being bullied into performing confusing tricks, they're kept caged or chained for up to 23 hours a day. And in the bullring, as many as eight men taunt, beat, and stab a single bull with daggers and harpoon-like banderillas until he becomes weakened from blood loss and the matador finally kills him with a sword.

The contestants on Britain's Next Top Model join a long list of celebrities – including Simon Cowell, Tom Hardy, Rylan Clark, Alexandra Burke, Little Mix, and many others – who've teamed up with PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way."