King’s Guard’s Bearskin Cap Orders More Than Quadruple Under Labour Party
According to records obtained by PETA, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has increased its order of bearskin caps for the King’s Guards by 336% under the Labour Party, rising from 22 caps in 2024 to 96 in 2025.
Freedom of information requests also reveal that the cost per cap has increased by nearly 8% during the same period, with each cap now costing taxpayers £2361.
These increases come despite pre-election commitments to ban fur imports to the UK, and despite the party’s pledge to deliver “the most ambitious animal welfare programme in a generation.”
Switch to Faux Fur Now!
We are calling on Luke Pollard, Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry – who has previously campaigned for a fur sales and import ban – to instruct the MoD’s capmakers to source and roll out faux fur for the caps.
Each cap costs a bear their life – making it indefensible that a government claiming to be the ‘party of animal welfare’ continues to use taxpayer money on these purely ornamental caps.With modern, high-quality faux fur readily available, there is no excuse to continue using bear fur. The MoD must act and develop a humane faux fur cap.
Where King’s Guard’s Caps Come From
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. The continued use of bear fur for the caps creates a market for the pelts and incentivises hunters to kill the bears.
A 2024 PETA video exposé revealed that hunters in Canada often bait the bears with buckets of sweet food before shooting them with high-powered crossbows, a form of hunting 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.
Take Action for Bears
Send an email to the government today urging them to support a switch to faux fur for the caps:
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