PETA to Push MoD Despite High Court’s Decision on Bearskin Cap Lawsuit
PETA to Push MoD Despite High Court’s Decision on Bearskin Cap Lawsuit
London – PETA is pledging to vigorously pursue its campaign to stop the Ministry of Defence (MoD) from using real bear fur to make the ornamental headpieces worn by the King’s Guard despite a High Court decision denying the group’s application for judicial review. In December 2022, against Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace on the grounds that he showed flawed decision-making by refusing to evaluate findings from laboratory tests supplied by PETA confirm that an expertly created faux fur fabric meets the ministry’s standards, but the private company contracted by the MoD to oversee uniforms suggested that the particular laboratory be ignored. PETA maintains Wallace’s decision is in breach of the promise that the ministry has long made to replace the bearskin once a suitable alternative was found. The court rejected the application last week on the basis that whether or not to accept the test results is a “discretionary decision” – a judgement that PETA says allows Wallace to continue to waste taxpayer money and costs countless bears their lives.
“It certainly should not take a court’s intervention for Ben Wallace to stop the Ministry of Defence from waging war on black bears, ordering up their slaughter for ornamental hats when a viable alternative is ready and waiting to be rolled out,” says PETA Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner. “PETA has gone to considerable expense to create a faux bearskin cap that meets all the stated criteria, and we will keep the pressure on the MoD so that, after nearly 20 years of stalling, a faux fur cap can finally be marched into service.”
Though the MoD has repeatedly refused requests to meet with the group or ECOPEL, the expert faux furriers who created the material, PETA has renewed its appeals to work collaboratively and in earnest with the department and its cap-makers to find constructive solutions to any perceived barriers. In a letter sent to the MoD following the court’s decision, PETA has offered to pay for new laboratory testing to be done at an MoD-accredited facility – a side-by-side comparison of the faux fur against the real bear fur – with representatives from PETA and the MoD on site to ensure full transparency and so that both sides can work together to unveil a modern, humane faux fur King’s Guard’s cap. PETA hopes the MoD will accept this offer and honour its commitment to work with the group to make the switch to humane faux fur.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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