United Kingdom

4108 readers

174 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in [email protected] or [email protected]
More serious politics should go in [email protected].

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

110

Stephen Fry wants King's Guard to ditch bear fur (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] glimse 39 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The problem is that wild animals are being killed so an unelected king in a democratic country can have his guards wear fancy hats

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I’d like the monarchy abolished as well tbh, but their hats are towards the bottom of the list of reasons why.

That’s also not gonna be Stephen Fry’s point, as good as he can be about some issues he’s also a known monarchist.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

an unelected king

Are kings ever elected? Like, what's an example of an elected king? 😅

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Maybe surprising, but yes. The pope is an example. Historically it was not super uncommon, nowadays Malaysia and Cambodia for instance still have an elected monarch.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And in the context of the UK?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh it is completely irrelevant for Fry's point. Just thought it was interesting.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Fair enough.

[–] withabeard 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Chances are (and I'm up for being corrected on this). The bears are being culled to maintain population levels.

In all areas of the world, human interaction with nature means we've upset the usual ecosystem balance. We've moved predator/prey ecosystems, we've changed their sizes and we've decided there are big areas we just don't want the predators. Culling/management is necessary to minimise our further impact.

These bears are going to be shot with or without the furs being used. They're not being killed so someone can have the fancy hats.

[–] glimse 13 points 10 months ago

Perhaps not the best source

Freedom of information act requests have revealed that the UK government does not know the details of the supply chain for the fur it buys, as MP John Nicolson pointed out during the debate:

"The evidence is that most bears in Canada are killed by trophy hunters who know there is a market for the skins. Canadian Government culls are infrequent and only authorised to kill the small number of bears straying too close to human habitation. The MoD has no idea about the provenance of the dead bears it buys. The evidence, again, is that they are often nursing mothers. When they are killed to make a hat, their cubs starve to death."

Canadian bear hunt policies are largely economically driven, despite many questioning the financial benefits over ecotourism investments. Black bear hunting trips cost thousands of dollars and, since the Government of Ontario has reintroduced the spring bear hunt, non-resident trophy hunters are paying to bait and kill bears for sport as they emerge from hibernation. Rather than being a by-product of wildlife management, bear pelts from Canada mostly come from recreational hunts.