An animal rights group in the UK has criticised the government for an "indefensible" rise in bearskin cap orders for royal guards despite a previous party pledge to clamp down on fur imports.
Orders for the tall fur caps worn by the King’s Guards outside Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace in London have risen more than fourfold since the Labour party took power, according to data obtained by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) under freedom of information laws, rising from 22 caps in 2024 to 96 in 2025.
The black caps, which were introduced following the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 to make soldiers appear tall and threatening, cost the Ministry of Defence (MoD) more than £225,000 to order in 2025, marking a nearly 8% increase in the price per cap from 2024.
Labour previously committed to ban fur imports to the UK in 2018, while in government pledged to deliver "the most ambitious animal welfare programme in a generation" in a policy paper published by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in 2025.
PETA has called on defence minister Luke Pollard to instruct the MoD’s capmakers to source and roll out faux fur for the caps.
PETA senior campaigns manager Kate Werner said: "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."
The black caps are worn by foot soldiers in the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, the Scots Guards, the Irish Guards and the Welsh Guards.
According to PETA, they are made of bearskin sourced from Canada, where hunters shoot bears with high-powered crossbows, which is an illegal form of hunting in the UK.
"Many bears are shot several times, and some escape only to die slowly from blood loss, gangrene, starvation, or dehydration," the organisation said.
"Hunters in Canada often bait the bears with buckets of sweet food before shooting them.
"The continued use of bear fur for the caps creates a market for the pelts and incentivises hunters to kill the bears."
An MoD spokesperson said: "We procure the minimum number of bearskin caps to replace those which have seen extensive use over extended years."
