Actor and animal welfare campaigner Stephen Fry is calling for an end to the use of real fur in the bearskin caps worn by the King’s Guard at ceremonial events, such as the Changing of the Guard outside Buckingham Palace. The Ministry of Defence has previously stated that the bear fur is from “legal and licensed hunts”. However, Mr Fry strongly disputes this. The actor narrates a video for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which criticises how bears are “mercilessly killed by trophy hunters” and says their fur is used “to make the caps worn by the King’s Guard”.
Mr Fry is backing an animal welfare campaign which urges the Ministry of Defence to use fake fur rather than real bear fur. In his video, he claims that bears are baited with food before being killed, and that they may not die right away but die later from infected wounds or blood loss. Mr Fry argued that Britain needed to adopt using artificial pelts: “Tradition is never an excuse for cruelty,” he added.
It takes at least one bear to provide enough fur for each cap. A supporter of the animal welfare group has made an undercover video that shows hunters putting down buckets of strongly-scented food as bait, and then shooting black bears with crossbow bolts when they approach. Mr Fry claims that bears are “lured with cookies to the hunters’ hiding place” although this has been denied by the Ministry of Defence.
The UK government has sponsored bait-and-kill sport hunting of mothers and other bears, according to Kate Werner of PETA. The animal welfare campaign group says it will share the video footage with King Charles and hopes he will support the switch from real to artificial fur. On the other hand, the Ministry of Defence claims that bear pelts are sourced from authorised hunts and a regulated Canadian fur market and that an alternative has yet to meet the standards required to provide an effective replacement for the bearskin ceremonial caps. Buckingham Palace declined to comment
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