PHOTOS: 'THE APPRENTICE' STAR DELIVERS BAG OF COAL TO FUR-PEDDLER HARVEY NICHOLS

'Santa' Steven Ugoalah and PETA 'Elves' Tell Department Store It's Naughty for Selling Fur

London – Harvey Nichols' Knightsbridge store got a holiday surprise on Thursday, when The Apprentice 2014 candidate Steven Ugoalah – dressed in a festive "Santa" business suit and accompanied by two "elves" – took the store to task with a sack of Christmas coal. Photos from the event are available here, here and here.

Why is Harvey Nichols on this Santa's "naughty" list? While the department store previously maintained a celebrated fur-free policy for a decade, it began selling fur again this year and has seen profits plummet.

"Supporting the cruel fur trade is not only bad business – as Harvey Nichols is learning – but also utterly shameful", Ugoalah says. "My friends at PETA and I are calling on Harvey Nichols to do the right thing for animals by dropping fur for good – and we're encouraging holiday shoppers to stay away from the store until it does."

As PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to wear", has exposed, for every cuff, collar, piece of trim or coat made from real fur, raccoon dogs, foxes, minks and many other animals – including dogs and cats – were electrocuted, bludgeoned, strangled or even skinned alive. PETA's video montage, narrated by Paloma Faith, about "Origin Assured" fur – the type sold at Harvey Nichols – shows animals left to suffer from bloody wounds and forced to live in cages alongside dead animals.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.