The bearskin hats worn by soldiers outside Buckingham Palace now cost more than £2,000 each, new figures show.
Animal rights activists trying to get real fur out of the bearskin caps worn by King’s Guards took aim at the cost of the ceremonial garb.
The price of the caps soared 30% in a year to more than £2,000 pounds apiece for the hats made of black bear fur, the Ministry of Defense said in response to a freedom of information request by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
“Fact-finding” visits to fur farms in Poland are being conducted this week by auditors of the European Commission, as part of the process in which an EU-wide ban on such farms is being considered.
This visit by the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety comes as a result of the European Citizens’ Initiative Fur Free Europe, in which 1.5 million European citizens called for a ban on fur farms and the sale of farmed fur products in the EU.
On fur farms, animals such as mink, foxes, chinchillas and racoon dogs are kept in tiny cages, hindered from displaying natural behaviour and killed solely for an unnecessary fashion product: fur.
During the visit, the auditors will be primarily focusing on the public health and zoonotic disease risks posed by such farms, after several fur farms in Europe were affected by Covid-19 and avian influenza in recent years, including Poland. Besides evaluating the implementation of the One Health mechanism on Polish fur farms, the audits may also include an evaluation of the welfare of farmed animals.
Although the auditors’ visits from the European Commission are announced, I am confident that the evaluation of fur farms in Poland will be negative. The welfare of foxes and minks is shockingly poor and will not go unnoticed by the visitors. As for public health risks, this issue has been ignored by the fur industry and disregarded by the Ministry of Agriculture, so we also expect a negative assessment from the auditors.
Paweł Rawicki, President, Otwarte Klatki
Apart from the undeniable animal welfare issues inherent to fur farms, the fact-finding visits conducted by the European Commission to fur farms in certain Member States are highly relevant. The connection between fur farming and the spread of zoonotic diseases must not be overlooked, especially in the context of preventing future pandemics. Given the non-essential nature of fur products, and in line with the One Health approach — essential for anticipating, preventing, detecting, and controlling diseases that transmit between animals and humans — it is unlikely that proportionate justifications can be found to continue legitimising this industry in the EU.
Bethania Malmberg, Programme Officer Fur Animals, Eurogroup for Animals
With over 300 farms keeping 3.4 million animals, Poland is currently the largest fur producer in the EU. Earlier this year, a bill was presented by a Polish MP for a national ban, yet this is still set to be deliberated in Parliament.
Feedback from a public consultation on amendments to the live animal transport regulation has just been published. The results reveal that citizens are very concerned about how animals are treated in this sector.
Read the summary results of the public consultation here.
In 2023, the European Commission announced it would update the Transport Regulation as part of its full revision to the animal welfare legislation. Soon after, it published its initial proposal for the update, which it invited European citizens to feed back on through a public consultation.
The response level was very high. The public consultation, which was open for a period of over four months (between 8 December 2023 and 12 April 2024) gathered over 5,000 contributions for analysis.
Within this number, a lot of the key input came from Spain, Germany, France and Italy, highlighting significant public interest for this topic in these Member States.
The results showed citizens overwhelmingly support stricter regulations to protect animal welfare in this industry, including by:
Banning certain types of transport and exports. Including banning long-distance and sea transport, and the export of live animals to third countries;
Improving transport conditions. Calling for adequate space, ventilation, food and water, as well as for reduced transport times;
Protecting vulnerable animals. Calling to ban the transport of unweaned and vulnerable animals, along with enforcing strict temperature controls;
Supporting stricter weather protection. Incorporating recommendations for stricter measures to safeguard animals from extreme weather;
Condemning harmful methods. Opposing the use of electric prods;
Addressing transition periods. Issues were raised about the length of transition periods to implement new welfare rules;
Helping poultry and rabbits. With suggestions to further limit transport times for these animals, based on their specific needs and natures;
Possibly transitioning to a different type of trade entirely. There is widespread support for shifting to the transport of meat and carcasses instead of live animals, which is viewed as a more humane alternative that could significantly reduce suffering.
Stakeholders from various fields, including agriculture, public authorities, and NGOs, also provided feedback on different areas of the proposal, such as its current scope and what it says about journey times and temperature controls. These results were mixed, with some differences of opinion arising between the groups. For instance, industry voices and farmers raised concerns about limiting journey times during transport, whereas NGOs posited that journey times should be reduced significantly, for the wellbeing of the animals subjected to them.
The transport proposal needs some changes to truly work for animal welfare
As the responses to the public consultation show, the current transport proposal should be further revised. Our white paper details several measures that can be used by policy-makers to draft the strongest policies possible in this area: addressing both the needs of the animals in this sector, as well as the concerns of European citizens who have voiced support for protecting their welfare.
It’s great to see that, yet again, the public is so engaged in the topic of live animal transport, and that European citizens in particular want to see more being done for animal welfare. This sector is very complex and causes suffering for millions of animals each year, both in the EU and beyond. The current transport proposal needs to be much stronger if it is really going to have an impact on the wellbeing of animals, and a lot of the conflicts of opinion expressed within the consultation could be addressed to a wider transition to a ‘meat and carcasses’ trade, in which no live animals would have to be subjected to these long and difficult journeys anymore.
Inês Grenho Ajuda, Farm Animals Programme Leader, Eurogroup for Animals
World Animals Voice 