Posted on 05/15/2005 1:09:21 PM PDT by lizol
British Army Pressured to Replace Hats
By CARA NEW, Associated Press Writer Sat May 14, 7:26 AM ET
LONDON - The British army's towering bearskin hats have been a well-known sight outside royal palaces for almost 200 years, but their days may be numbered.
Animal rights activists are demanding the hats, made from the pelts of North American black bears, be replaced by artificial fur, and one protester plans to follow Queen Elizabeth II in a bear costume when she visits Canada next week.
"It is time to confine bearskin to the history books, just as bearbaiting was confined to history books in this country," Andrew Butler, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said Friday.
Butler said one of the group's supporters planned to follow the queen on her May 17-25 visit to Canada, which supplies the army with bearskins.
The Ministry of Defense recently began a two-year test of a new artificial fur, the latest attempt in a decade-long search for a replacement that has so far proven unsuccessful.
Bearskin is a famously durable and luxurious fur, making it difficult to replicate. The artificial fur previously tested, usually made with nylon, did not absorb water well, tended to discolor, and stuck up at all angles with static, an army spokesman said.
The hats are worn by members of the five regiments — the Grenadier, Welsh, Irish, Scots and Coldstream Guards — who protect Buckingham Palace and other royal sites. The bearskin hats cost $1,218, and can last 20 to 40 years through wind, rain and sun exposure.
The army said bears are not killed expressly for their fur. Each year the army's hat manufacturer buys roughly 100 pelts from an annual cull of tens of thousands of Canadian bears. Animal rights groups protest this is far more than is necessary to control the population.
It is thought that the army has used bearskin hats since the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, when soldiers took the hats directly off the heads of Napoleon's Imperial Guard.
The army has already replaced beaver hats and leopard skins, worn by some of its soldiers, with artificial materials.
I suppose they will want to get rid of leather boots next...
I know it's not original statement, but my first thought on reading this is some people are just so stupid.
would love to see these a$$holes protest in a biker bar. maybe they should make the hats out of protesters.
Maybe if they replace them with animal-rights-activist-skin hats that'll be more acceptable.
A hearty STFU.
"I suppose they will want to get rid of leather boots next."
Yep, but it is a little hard to do those facing movements in flip flops.
20-40 years? Next time I kill a bear, I'm making a hat.
Perhaps we should introduce these protestors to angry bears.
Black bears are thriving all over North America, and need to be culled more than they are. This is just plain goofy.
Of course the British hats are ceremonial as opposed to functional, but our own "Old Guard" (US Army 3rd Infantry Regiment) still drill in uniforms that are highly impractical from a contemporary military standpoint.
An Army division, a Navy ship, an Air Force Squadron...the unit history is a morale issue. The mystique of a unit's past successes encourage the current members to uphold the honor of that unit. At any change of command ceremony, the unit's history is normally read (in the Army, anyways.) Many military customs and courtesy (saluting a superior officer, in ranks inspections, etc.) are all essentially impractical from a purely tactical standpoint, but perpetuate a tradition of discipline and sense of duty and honor that pay high dividends on the battlefield.
Maybe wear a beaver?
Hat
The British are loony left when they go left-wing, and rabid right when they are conservative. Or perhaps today's animal welfare activism is a "green" form of good old-fashioned go-good imperialism.
This is 100% export-strength BS. The bears are already dead. If you want to protest against killing bears, protest the bear killers, but the fact is, as with any of the campaigns of the left, the real evil is the right, and the forces they use to oppress the proletariat: The Army.
I can really see them protesting against a Red Indian/Mongolian-American ritual which involves (American)Buffalo/Bison skins.
What's the common denominator in the protests of the left ? The evil right! Of course.
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