PETA: Let’s demand a changing of the Guard’s caps
The UK Ministry of Defence refuses to replace the current Queen’s Guard caps with faux fur despite being nearly indistinguishable.
GUEST ARTICLE: Did you know that the UK’s Ministry of Defence was offered replacement faux fur bear caps at no cost to them until 2030? Instead, they chose to use taxpayer money to fund the massacre of Canadian black bears by hunters. PETA Director Elisa Allen explains how you can take action.
Right now, bears are being baited and gunned down so that their fur can be used to adorn the Queen’s Guard’s caps. It takes the skin of one bear to make a single cap. Some of the bears are mothers, whose cubs are left to starve or be killed by predators, meaning one cap can actually represent the slaughter of an entire family. All this suffering and death for ceremonial headgear that serves no military purpose - you’d be forgiven for forgetting that we’re meant to be living in a civilized society.
Aware of the scrutiny of the bearskin caps, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has stated - to the UK public, members of Parliament, and the media - that its support of this massacre of wildlife overseas would end as soon as a “suitable and affordable [faux fur] alternative” becomes available. To that end, PETA - a charity - has devoted significant time, money and other resources to developing the world’s first faux bear fur.
In collaboration with world-renowned faux furrier ECOPEL, we have created a faux bear fur that looks and performs just like the real thing. PETA even paid to have the fabric tested at the MoD’s accredited laboratory. ECOPEL has generously offered to provide the ministry with free faux bear fur until 2030. Since these ornamental caps currently cost the UK taxpayer a whopping £1,710 apiece, you’d assume the MoD would snap it up. But you’d be wrong. In a desperate attempt to maintain this cruel “tradition”, it has made laughable assertions denigrating the fabric’s “user comfort” and “durability”, despite never having placed a cap made from the fabric on a single guard’s head. You’d be hard-pressed in this day and age to find a British person who thinks it’s fine to steal an animal’s fur for what is essentially a piece of fashion, and to the naked eye, the two fabrics look virtually identical.
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Canadian black bears are supposedly “culled”, yet no evidence of these exists, says PETA.
The MoD would also have you believe that the fur used in producing the caps is a by-product of a necessary “cull” of black bears, overseen by the Canadian authorities, yet PETA has found no evidence that any such cull exists. We believe the ministry is using the term as a euphemism for the annual hunting tags the Canadian government issues to hunting enthusiasts who bait and kill bears for “sport” and “trophies”. Hunters may use a variety of weapons, from guns to bows and arrows and, in some parts of Canada, even spears – inflicting on the bears a prolonged and agonising death. Hunters may then sell the bearskins to fur auction houses and other suppliers for financial gain.
In reality, British taxpayers are funding the slaughter of bears in Canada and making the sale of their skin a profitable pursuit for cowardly hunters.
There is absolutely no justification for the continued massacre of wildlife for these caps. The world’s most celebrated and accomplished designers have all ditched real fur, and if they can do it, so can the MoD. Times have changed, and our institutions must change with them. Today, even the Queen, whom the regiments are charged with protecting, has stopped purchasing real fur for her own wardrobe.
The animal-loving British public must stand up and demand a changing of the Guard’s caps! Every day that bears are blasted with bullets or arrows to be skinned for our soldiers brings dishonour to our country. A government petition has been launched, and as soon as we get to 100,000 signatures, we’ll force a much-needed parliamentary debate on the issue. Please, sign the petition (available here), share it with everyone you know, and join us in saying, “MoD, go fur-free.”
Elisa Allen is Director at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
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