Animal rights group PETA might take the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to court docket in a row over the fur used for the King’s Guards’ bearskin caps.
PETA developed a fake fur model of the black bearskin famously worn by guards exterior Buckingham Palace and claims the MoD did not correctly contemplate the choice.
The group has filed for judicial overview, claiming MoD failed to stick to its personal procedures, behaved unfairly, breached procedural expectation, and exhibited flawed decision-making, amounting to illegal conduct.
PETA claims the MoD’s refusal to trial the fake fur or consider the findings of laboratory testing is in breach of a promise it made to switch the bearskin as soon as an acceptable different is discovered.
PETA and the MoD are at odds over whether or not the fake fur, developed with the textile producer ECOPEL, meets MoD’s necessities.
The MoD beforehand claimed the fake fur failed to fulfill 4 of the 5 necessities it set for synthetic fur, regarding water absorption, penetration, look, drying charge and compression.
But PETA argues exams by a cloth technologist present its product meets and, in some circumstances, exceeds these necessities, and claims the MoD has refused to judge the outcomes.
Lorna Hackett, PETA’s authorized consultant from Hackett & Dabbs LLP, mentioned: “We are seeking the court’s intervention so that the MoD fully evaluates the report and reaches a fresh decision by fair process, with a view to considering the faux fur fabric’s adoption as a replacement for real fur if it is found to be suitable, as the MoD has long committed to doing.”
An MoD spokesperson mentioned: “We have been served with a legal claim in respect of this matter and cannot provide specific comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
PETA has lobbied for the caps’ fur to get replaced with an artificial substitute since 2002, accusing the MoD of “support for the slaughter of Canadian black bears”.
The MoD claims the furs usually are not “hunted for order”, come from authorized, licenced hunts and has mentioned that chopping its orders wouldn’t scale back the numbers being hunted.
The caps are worn by foot troopers within the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, the Scots Guards, the Irish Guards and the Welsh Guards.
Source: information.sky.com”