A lawsuit against the British Ministry of Defense over the "hats of the Royal Guard"
Soldiers of the British Royal Guard wearing the traditional hat.
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The animal rights organization PETA announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the British Ministry of Defense for its refusal to test an artificial fur version of the famous Royal Guard hats made of bear hair.
Known as bearskins, these berets are reserved for members of the elite regiments of the army who wear them during the Changing of the Guard in front of Buckingham Palace, and have become one of the most recognizable symbols of the United Kingdom.
PETA has long pushed to stop using hats made from real Canadian black bear hair, and designed replacement hats made from acrylic, produced by a French company.
A member of the association, Kate Werner, told AFP that the British Ministry of Defense refuses to test these hats, although it has pledged to do so on several occasions in recent years.
For its part, the British Ministry of Defense said: “We are informed that the PETA organization has filed a lawsuit in this regard.
We cannot comment in a specific way on an ongoing case.”
The British government had announced months ago that there were no plans to replace the bears' hair hats, adding that an analysis of the artificial fur testing showed that it did not meet the necessary criteria to allow it to be replaced by the current hats.
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