Ministry of Defence Spending on Unpopular Bearskin Caps Spikes 30%; Public Says, ‘Go Faux’
12 Sept 2024
Ministry of Defence Spending on Unpopular Bearskin Caps Spikes 30%; Public Says, ‘Go Faux’
London – According to records recently obtained by PETA, the price of each bearskin cap purchased by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the King’s Guard jumped by over 30%, and each cap now costs the government a whopping £2,040. The MoD has spent over £1 million of taxpayer money on the caps over the last nine years and continues to buy them – 24 were purchased in 2023 alone – even though a poll by The Times pollster Populus found that 75% of Britons consider the caps a “bad use of Government funds” and YouGov polling showed that 78% of people with an opinion support the switch to faux fur. Luxury faux furrier ECOPEL has offered to provide a 10-year supply of faux bear fur – which outperforms real fur in laboratory testing – to the MoD free of charge.
The Labour Party has previously committed to conducting “an immediate review of the possible alternatives to bear fur” if it came into government, stating, “It is incredibly important that traditions develop and adapt if they are to survive.” PETA is now calling on the party to make good on its promise.
A cap made of ECOPEL’s faux bear fur, which the company has offered to supply to the MoD for free for 10 years. Photo: PETA
“The government must heed the public’s wishes and stop propping up Canada’s cruel bear-hunting industry when it could be getting beautiful faux fur for free,” says PETA Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen. “PETA is calling on the Ministry of Defence to stop wasting taxpayer pounds on caps made from slaughtered wildlife and switch to faux fur today.”
It takes the skin of at least one bear to make a single cap. The MoD bought 526 bearskin hats between 2017 and July 2024 – equating to at least that many slaughtered bears. The ministry has previously claimed that the fur is the by-product of a “cull” overseen by Canadian authorities, but federal and provincial Canadian governments have confirmed to PETA that no such thing exists. Instead, the Canadian government issues “tags” to hunting enthusiasts, who are then free to kill an allotted number of bears and sell their pelts for profit. A recent PETA video exposé revealed that hunters often bait the bears with buckets of food before shooting them with high-powered crossbows, a form of hunting that has been illegal in the UK since 1981 under wildlife protection laws. Many bears are shot several times, and some escape only to die slowly from blood loss, gangrene, starvation, or dehydration.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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