UK military urged to stop using bearskin hats on cost grounds [Video]

Animal rights group PETA on Thursday renewed its call for soldiers outside Buckingham Palace to stop wearing real bearskin hats after UK government figures revealed they now cost more than £2,000 ($2,600) each.

The tall black hats are worn by elite regiments, including for the Changing of the Guard ceremony outside Buckingham Palace, and are one of the best-known symbols of the UK.

The cost of the hats, made from the fur of Canadian Black Bears, rose by 30 percent in a year to £2,040 in 2023, according to figures revealed in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from animal welfare campaigners.

PETA previously took the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to court in an unsuccessful bid to prevent the use of real fur, saying that there were synthetic alternatives.

It now says there is an economic, as well as ethical, case to use fake fur instead.

“The government …