Royal guards’ bearskin cap orders rise ‘indefensible’
An animal rights group has criticized the British Government for an “indefensible” increase in bearskin orders for royal guards, despite a pledge to restrict fur imports.
Orders for the long fur caps worn by the King’s Guard outside Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace have more than quadrupled since Labor came to power, according to data obtained under freedom of information laws by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta). This figure increased from 22 in 2024 to 96 in 2025.
Black hats, introduced after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 to make soldiers look tall and threatening, cost the Ministry of Defense (MoD) more than 225,000 stg ($420,332) in 2025; This represents an increase in price per hat of approximately eight percent compared to 2024.
Labor previously committed to ban fur imports into the UK in 2018, while the government pledged to implement “the most ambitious animal welfare program in a generation” in a policy document published in 2025.
Peta called on Defense Minister Luke Pollard to switch to faux fur hats.
“Each hat costs the life of a bear, making it untenable for a government that claims to be the ‘party of animal welfare’ to continue using taxpayers’ money for these purely decorative caps,” said Peta’s Kate Werner.
“With modern, high-quality faux fur readily available, there is no excuse to continue using bear fur,” he said.
Black caps are worn by infantrymen in the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards, Irish Guards and Welsh Guards.
They are made from bearskin from Canada, where hunters shoot bears with high-powered crossbows, an illegal form of hunting in the UK.
“Many bears are shot multiple times, and some escape to die slowly from blood loss, gangrene, hunger or dehydration,” Peta said.
“The continued use of bear fur for hats creates a market for the pelts and encourages hunters to kill bears.”
A Ministry of Defense spokesman said the department had “purchased a minimum number of bearskin hats to replace those that have been used extensively over many years.”
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