Royal news, Britain's Queen Elizabeth is set to face protests from animal rights campaigners on her trip to Canada later this month.Animal rights group PETA have revealed plans to use the state visit to showcase their opposition to the ceremonial bearskin hats worn by the monarch's household guard regiments and made from the skins of Canadian bears.A PETA spokesperson told Reuters news agency: "The bearskin hats are an international symbol for Britain - they are as British as the queen herself - but the cruelty behind them is not internationally known."The skins come from bears killed in Canada, many of whom are shot several times before they die, while some escape the hunters and bleed to death."The group plan to post a protestor dressed as a bear and carrying a placard saying "Save My Skin!" at all of the queen's formal engagements during her eight-day tour. But British officials claim the action is inappropriate because the army buys less than 100 pelts a year compared with licensed hunters who kill thousands of North American bears.

An army spokesman said: "There is no justification for PETA's demonstration at all.

"The American and the Canadian wildlife authority issue licences for the killing of 20,000 bears each a year on both sides of the border, out of a population of over a million black bears. It is not an endangered species."

The army is currently testing synthetic substitutes for the bearskins but says it will take two years to complete and that previous trials have failed, with fake fur hats either fading from black to red, becoming water-logged in bad weather, or charged with static electricity.

The army spokesman added: "You can shake a bearskin and it goes back to its shape again but if the wind blows against a faux-fur bearskin, it looks like a bad hair day."

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