Cross-Party MPs Demand the MoD Replace Bear Fur With Faux
As MPs return to Westminster following the summer recess, nearly 20 cross-party parliamentarians, including Rachael Maskell MP, Hannah Spencer MP, and Ian Sollom MP, have written a letter to Luke Pollard, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, urging him to stop outfitting the King’s Guard in the skin of slaughtered bears and switch to faux fur.
“The Government’s continued use of real bearskin is impossible to justify,” the letter reads. “We call on you to instruct the Ministry of Defence and its suppliers to work proactively with manufacturers to develop and adopt a suitable faux fur alternative, in line with the Government’s commitment to advancing animal welfare.”
Bears Are Baited and Shot So Their Skin Can Become a Hat
The ministry purchases finished caps from capmakers who source bear fur from Canada, where the government issues “hunting tags” allowing hunters to kill an allotted number of bears and sell their pelts. Let’s be clear: these bears are individuals—each with their own life and a will to live—and their fur belongs to them, not the British military. The continued use of bear fur for the caps creates a market for pelts and incentivises hunters to kill bears.
A 2024 PETA video exposé revealed that hunters in Canada often bait bears with buckets of sweet food before shooting them with high-powered crossbows, a method so violent that it’s illegal in the UK under wildlife protection laws. Many bears are shot several times, and some escape only to die slowly from blood loss, gangrene, starvation, or dehydration. No one deserves to die like this—least of all for a ceremonial hat.
Parliament Is Speaking Up—Will the Government Listen?
MPs and peers from across Parliament are making it clear that the Government’s continued use of real bear fur has no place in modern Britain. Every bearskin cap represents a bear’s violent death. The MoD must urgently dedicate its resources to finding a faux fur and end the UK’s support for the slaughter of wildlife overseas.
Earlier this year, MPs gathered outside the Houses of Parliament with a banner reading, “Bears Killed for the King’s Guard’s Caps. MoD: Go Fur Free” after records showed a sharp increase in the number of fur caps purchased by the MoD.
What You Can Do
Bears are not ours to wear. Their skin belongs to them—not to the Ministry of Defence, not to capmakers, and not to tradition. According to a poll carried out by Populus, 75% of the UK public considers the bearskin caps a “bad use of Government funds.” It’s time the government caught up with the public’s values.
Tell the MoD to ditch bear fur and adopt a faux fur alternative now.
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