On February 6, the Fur Institute of Canada returned to Ottawa for Fur Day on the Hill 2024. Supporting us were our friends at Summa Strategies, and joining us were our colleagues from the Ontario Fur Managers Federation, Canada Mink Breeders Association and Saga Furs.

FIC Board members had approximately 30 meetings with Members of Parliament, Senators, representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministers. Topics covered ranged from re-establishing Canada as a fur leader, supporting Canada’s sustainable and humane seal harvest, and defending the use and trade of fur around the world. Targeted support to promote Canadian fur at home and abroad, continuing the Canadian Seal Products campaign, and a strategy to work collaboratively between the diplomatic corps and the FIC to combat disinformation and trade bans on fur, are all initiatives that the Institute team discussed with decision-makers.

We also hosted Parliamentarians and allies from the nation’s capital for a cocktail reception, where they were able to experience fur garments from Créations GAMA in Montreal and Ottawa’s own Pat Flesher Furs. The chilly February Ottawa weather gave a great opportunity for FIC members to wear their own furs, and for MPs to bring theirs as well.

Building strong relationships with Parliamentarians and government decision-makers is an essential part of FIC’s mandate to advocate on behalf of Canada’s fur trade. By re-establishing Fur Day on the Hill as an important part of the Ottawa calendar, the Institute is gaining allies of all political stripes, and making sure that more of the people who make decisions that affect our industry are familiar with our organization and our trade.

The FIC staff and Board will continue to engage with governments at the federal, provincial and territorial levels to support and defend Canada’s fur trade throughout the year.

SEE ALSO: Fur Day on the Hill: Fur Institute welcomes friends in Ottawa. Truth About Fur, May 1, 2023.

Dilan Porzuczek has a passion for fur -- a passion he’s now sharing with a new generation of talented young designers.

“I was first invited to do a presentation for the fashion program at Quebec City’s College Notre-Dame-de-Foy several years ago,” says the 28-year-old owner of Fourrures Léopold Martel, a well-established fur store in Jonquiere, about 200 kilometres north of the provincial capital.

“The students could relate to me because I am young, and coming from a retail fashion background I understood their creative interests.

“It is important that we go into fashion schools because the teachers often aren’t comfortable introducing fur in their classes; they don’t have the information they need to reassure students about their ethical concerns,” says Dilan.

SEE ALSO: The ethics of fur. Truth About Fur.

“Many of the students were anti-fur to start, but they listened when I explained how I had become uncomfortable with the ecological cost of ‘fast fashion’. The younger generation is very conscious and concerned about waste in the fashion industry.

SEE ALSO: What is "vegan fashion" and how true is the hype? Truth About Fur.

“They were really interested to learn about the environmental credentials of fur – that fur is responsibly-produced, natural, long-lasting and recyclable. And that after decades of use you can throw fur into the garden compost. Unlike fake fur or other petroleum-based synthetics that make up 60% of our clothing today, fur is fully biodegradable, it quickly returns to the earth. If we are looking for sustainable clothing, fur checks all the boxes!

SEE ALSO: The sustainability of fur. Truth About Fur.

“At the last seminar we did, in November, I was told that seven teachers but only five students had signed up for the two-day workshop that followed,” says Dilan. “But after my presentation, 30 showed up, so I guess we changed a few minds!

“We had set up blocking boards, and fur machines, and the Fédération des Trappeurs Gestionnaires du Québec donated some coyotes, fox, beaver and other furs. [Ed.: A "fur machine", as it is known in the trade, is a fur sewing machine to the layman.] We also had some old coats to recycle.

SEE ALSO: 5 great ways to recycle old fur clothing. Truth About Fur.

“Gathered around a big table, I started by explaining how we use the different furrier’s tools. Then I had them work on their patterns, and that afternoon they were blocking skins and learning how to use a fur machine.

“The second day they were all working on their projects, cutting and sewing fur pelts. Some of the teachers even wanted to learn how to ‘let out’ pelts!

“They didn’t all manage to finish their pieces that weekend, but we followed up with Facebook. Some made accessories, or a small vest, even a bomber jacket ... My only requirement was that they make something different.

“That’s what’s so wonderful about fur – you can really get creative,” says Dilan. “I just love working with fur, and it’s very satisfying when you see young designers catching that excitement!”

This article was first published in Country Squire Magazine on Jan. 12, 2024, and has been slightly edited. It is reproduced with permission.

Being an Old Testament bloke, I usually reply in kind to those rude people who call law-abiding farmers, hunters, field-sportspeople and wildlife managers “murderers, killers and evil monsters”. I insult people who tell blatant lies about trophy hunting, and I mock demented Animal Rights (AR) evangelists who are so blinded by zealotry that they can’t tell a human from a hippo. It is therefore with awful sadness and restraint that I comment on one of my heroes and favourite people on TV, the wonderful Stephen Fry, whose appearances in Blackadder as Lord/General Melchett over 30 years ago and as the genial host of QI over 20 years ago (I know!) has enriched my life a bit and made him a firm favourite with the nation.

But now he has gone and done his own round of QI’s “General Ignorance”, concerning the bearskins worn by His Majesty’s Guards. Fry has unfortunately seen fit to front a campaign by PeTA ostensibly aimed at getting the Guards to use fake plastic fur instead of real fur bearskins – and fake sums up the whole AR campaign.

PeTA (also known as “PeTAnnihilation” from its habit of killing pets) you might recall, is the global AR behemoth (UK income £6 million, Global income $66 million and part of the $88 million that the network of mega AR parasites rake in annually). PeTA’s founder, stark-raving Ingrid Newkirk (“Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on Earth”), who openly condones ecoterrorism, set up PeTA to spread the mental disease of AR and oppose any use of animals by humans – no pets, no seeing dogs, no mine-detecting rats, no drug dogs, no farming animals, no nothing.

Unfortunately, since all of our physical resources and clearing land for any building work or farming, even vegetable farming (yes, vegans) or any other primary industry, involves killing animals, it is a simple fact of life that we humans couldn’t exist without killing animals, so the AR ideology is, in reality, an intellectual cow-pat. This is hardly surprising because Newkirk, like the rest of the AR souls, was apparently intoxicated by reading Peter Singer’s brain-fart of a book, Animal Liberation. He, in turn, is infamous for suggesting that, given a choice, competent monkeys should be given more rights than mentally incompetent human infants and he is AR’s founding father. There is, in fact, no such thing as animal rights, as any deer fawn can explain, shortly before being torn to shreds by an omnivorous black bear.

As Baldrick might have put it, “AR is a cunning plan, as cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University”. AR is just about as realistic as that, too.

This story isn’t new. Bears and the King’s Guards, like naked women and red paint, make for wonderful press photos, so they have been a favourite target for PeTA for years; in fact the suggestion has been made that PeTA might want to let this particular golden goose live on. In the past, PeTA organised the usual petition and got their empty-vessel, willing donkey MPs to waste time in the Westminster Asylum debating their anti-bearskin nonsense and waste money taking the MOD to court in 2022. Bears are very charismatic in the UK – you will notice that AR souls make much less fuss here about rats, but even then, PeTA suggests that rats “should be caught gently in live catch traps and released not more than 100 yards from where they are caught” – an idea with obviously only one oar in the water, like most AR souls’ ideas. This is really all about publicity, not bears.

And what of the bears?

Well, according to Canadian government wildlife authorities, who may know a tad more about fur than either nut-roast PeTA or vegetarian Mr Fry, black bears are abundant and common in Canada. There is an estimated black bear population of about 500,000 black bears in Canada that is both healthy and stable. Black bear hunting and trapping has a very long history and is strictly regulated by both season and quota. In Canada, it contributes to food security and economic sovereignty in Indigenous communities and is an important source of rural income, especially where alternative economic opportunities are few. Bear meat and red offal are eaten, while grey offal is laid out for the natural scavengers or buried if you don’t want a bear’s picnic. There is nothing strange about any of it. We humans have been predators since before we were humans. Hunting by modern humans and our ancestors goes back at least 1,600,000 years.

PeTA has been around for about 43 years.

Stephen Fry is simply wrong when he repeats PeTA’s dishonest but obligatory “Trophy hunting” jibe – harvesting bears per se is not trophy hunting. He’s having a stir. Trophy hunting (usually conducted by hunting tourists) is something entirely different – trophy hunters keep their bear skins for a start. The Canadian bear harvest is not a “sport” – it is closer to subsistence hunting, an ancient and honourable human activity aimed at sustainably harvesting a natural resource, like rabbits, deer or fish in the UK and, like all predation, it doesn’t have to be “fair” – it’s not some kind of frivolous urban game to be played.

Things get killed. It is a way of life and a cultural tradition. The number of Canadian bears annually harvested by legal hunting and trapping is only a maximum of 6% of the total population and the harvest is RATS – Regulated, Accountable, Transparent and Sustainable. The meat is eaten while skins, bones, claws, and grease, etc. are important by-products of this harvest and are sent to market, no different to leather, feathers, hide glue, deer antlers for handles or dog chews that end up in UK pet shops.

Could someone please tell critics that the MOD don’t look at a tatty old bearskin cap and immediately phone someone in Canada to go out and club a bear to death for a new one. The MOD has nothing to do with the Canadian bear harvest or its market any more than it buys steel for its guns or leather for its boots. The MOD buys their bearskin caps from a supplier, representing (in number) a minuscule 0.04% of the skins available from the bear population and if those suppliers did not buy them, it would not make a blind bit of difference to either the sustainable bear harvest or its market.

It is therefore not true for Fry to suggest that buying them “encourages hunting”. Bear pelts are a natural commodity like any other. As of 2020, there were 14 countries whose militaries used bearskin as a part of their ceremonial uniforms and there is an interesting piece about making the UK bearskin caps on the excellent and most illuminative Fieldsports Channel.

Of course, the public are not Royal Guards, so PeTA and Fry and their usual posse of rich, virtue-signalling slebs can pretend to their doting and donating public that plastic fur makes a better substitute and from there imply deceptively that it will save bears’ lives.

Wrong on both counts, as usual.

The MOD have made it clear here that fake fur isn’t up to scratch (so to speak) and, as you can see from the link, using fake fur won’t save a single bear. Quite apart from these practical and sensible considerations, there is also the serious matter of military tradition and esprit de corps.

AR souls, whose self-indulgent, look-at-me ideology is only possible because they are safe and well protected by the sharp sword and bright armour of the military, have no more idea about military tradition than they do about hunting culture. In the earlier debate about bearskins in the Westminster Asylum, Martyn Day MP (nothing to do with the shamed Al Sweady lawyer) got up to pee on military tradition, saying, “As the writer and philosopher G. K. Chesterton wrote: Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.” He omitted to acknowledge that the sacrifices of those dead allowed him to stand in Parliament and freely spout his wrong-headed opinions.

Dear Readers, there is another serious, real-world note. Fake fur is made up of millions of tiny oil-based plastic fibres that snap off in sunlit use and inevitably break down into smaller and smaller pieces. We all know that trillions of micro plastics are shed by synthetic plastic clothes (up to 700,000 in a 6kg wash), exfoliants (up to 94,000 in a single use) and tyres (18,000 tons annually), making up 65% of the micro plastics released into UK surface waters that end up in the oceans and inside us. What we should be doing is stopping using fake plastic Franken-fur, not promoting it. It may well be poisoning all of us (and, ironically, the bears in Canada) just to keep a handful of gobby urban head-bangers happy.

Natural fur, on the other hand, has another story. It is an unbeatably warm and beautiful, sustainable and replaceable natural resource that can be absorbed back into nature’s own cycle – one that we have been using for the whole of our history. It is bio-degradable and uses fewer chemicals to produce than, say, leather. Sustainably utilising natural resources like fur and meat while managing wildlife populations is an excellent use for vast areas of remote wilderness, ensuring that it is self-protected from development or other uses such as farming. In doing so, all the other fauna and flora is conserved, too. Armchair conservationists may grumble and the AR happy clappers may moan, but hunters on the ground are often the first eyes and ears monitoring the condition of the environment and its residents.

Looking at the state of the world at the moment, surely we have much more important problems to attend to rather than waste time and money, pointlessly pandering to PeTA the Parasites or to the twisted ideology and emotions of rich, virtue-signalling AR souls – even souls of the otherwise exemplary stature of Stephen Fry, bless him.

The Canadian Sealers Association has lost one of its major figures and a courageous champion with the death of past president Mark Small, on January 18. He was 83 years old.

To show respect for Mark's contributions to the CSA, to our home province, and to sealing communities across Canada, Jim Winter, founding CSA president, Eldred Woodford, current president, and Albert Newhook, an earlier president, were present for the celebration of Mark's life at Trinity Pentecostal Church, in Baie Verte, on the remote northeast peninsula of Newfoundland.

For decades Mark was a major figure in the association's efforts to counter the propaganda of animal rights corporations and remove the politically motivated bans on Canadian seal products in many countries.

Mark cared. More importantly, he acted on his caring. What more can you ask of a person?

Caring is one thing, but taking action is a much harder thing to do. For decades Mark took action. He took action on behalf of all sealers throughout Canada. His presence made a difference. His presence at events was the presence of the people, in the midst of various Canadian government politicians and bureaucrats. In fact, often his presence was to spur those entities into taking concrete positive steps to resolve the issues that plague the Canadian sealing industry – issues that also plague rural coastal communities like his beloved Baie Verte.

Mark saw the sealing industry not only as a 400-year-old tradition throughout coastal communities in Atlantic Canada, but also as an important contributor today to the continued existence of those rural communities dependent on the mosaic of incomes that provide a living for their citizens. Sealing, fishing, hunting, farming, being a "jack of all trades" – all pieces in the financial mosaic that rural coastal communities depend on for survival. Mark spoke our facts, our realities, in Canada and to foreign politicians and media. He did so clearly, passionately, and concisely.

Mark was a man of great caring, and that caring was rooted in his faith as a pastor in the Pentecostal church. His faith infused everything he did. It made him the man he was.

He was not only an activist for the sealing industry, he was equally active in the fishery and in his community.

Despite the challenges of all those activities, his prime focus was always on his wife, Patricia, and their three sons. As time passed he became a loving grandfather, uncle, and great uncle.

Mark, as you set sail on this new voyage may you have fair winds, full holds and bloody decks. R.I.P.

There’s a bright future for the North American fur trade if the excitement of fashion students at the recent Montreal Fur Rendezvous is anything to judge by. This past Fall (November 2-3), leaders of the industry joined forces to bring marketing and design students from three of Montreal’s top fashion colleges a taste of new directions in the fur trade.

Saga Furs presented a collection of innovative fur apparel and accessories from their Fur Vision collection – modern creations that are definitely not your grandma’s old fur coat. Saga also brought hot young New York designer Romeo Hunte, who the students embraced like a rock star. They listened intently as Hunte explained his approach to working with fur, and were especially attracted to his giant blue fox Teddy Bear backpack, fur sneakers, and intarsia denim pants. The Saga Fur Vision team also demonstrated new fur-sewing techniques that greatly expand the designer’s palette.

Mink farmers Rob Bollert and Rob Dietrich manned the Canada Mink Breeders Association booth where students could see and touch some of the natural fur colours that have been developed (dyeing is really not needed!), and learn about the excellent animal care required to produce the quality of mink North America is known for.

SEE ALSO: Facts about fur farming. Truth About Fur.

“The students were very interested in learning that mink health and well-being is assured by strict codes of practice, and that Canadian mink farms are inspected and certified to ensure compliance with those standards,” said Rob Bollert. “It was very encouraging to see how open they are to using fur if they are confident that it is produced responsibly.”

Canadian trappers and wild fur were represented by Doug Chiasson of the Fur Institute of Canada (FIC), and Howard Noseworthy of Fur Harvesters Auction (FHA). Montreal manufacturers and wholesalers in attendance included Mitch Fazekas of Mitchie’s Matchings, and Christina Nacos of Natural Furs.

The Montreal Fur Rendezvous was also supported by M-Mode, the Quebec fashion industry “Grappe” (industrial cluster), and CEO Mathieu St-Arnaud was there with several members of his team. Other participants included Écofaune boréale, a research program focused on environmentally sustainable leather tanning and fur dressing, in partnership with First Nations; Fibreshed Quebec, which promotes local textiles following a “soil-to-soil” philosophy; and Mercury Leather, a Montreal-based manufacturer of leather garments.

More than 400 fashion marketing and design students attended the Montreal Fur Rendezvous over the two-day event, while some 50 members of the fur trade attended a cocktail on the first evening, which included a presentation by Saga North America’s Charlie Ross about the current state of world markets.

Saga joined with FHA, the FIC, the CMBA, Mitchie’s Matchings, and other local brokers to donate a collection of dressed pelts to the colleges, to help students experiment with fur.

“It was very exciting to see how enthusiastic these young fashion students are about working with fur, and how interested they are in learning about how the industry is regulated and fur is now certified to ensure that production is sustainable and responsible,” said Ross.

“This was a wonderful event because it is designers and fashion marketers who bring fur to the consumer," said the FIC’s Doug Chiasson. "This was an extraordinary opportunity to build bridges with tomorrow’s fashion leaders,”

When I was a child, in the 1950s, my father would sometimes bring me down to my grandfather’s fur atelier, on St. Helen Street, in Old Montreal. In the lobby of the grey-stone building, my father greeted Frank, the elevator man, who crashed shut the heavy metal-grate doors, and swung the wood-handled lever to guide our clunking steel cage up to the fourth floor.

In the hardwood-floored factory, men in white smocks were busy with the many intricate tasks required to handcraft fur garments. At long, fluorescent-lit work tables, muskrat, otter, mink, and Persian lamb pelts were matched by colour and texture into “bundles”, each with enough pelts to make a single coat or jacket.

The fur pelts were dampened, stretched, and nailed onto large “blocking” boards, to flatten and thin them. When they were dry, a skilled “cutter” traced the outlines of heavy brown construction paper patterns (two front pieces, the back, sleeves, collar) onto the pelts, and sliced off the excess with his razor-sharp furrier’s knife -- carefully setting aside the fur scraps that would later be sewn together into “plates” from which other garments would be made. Nothing was wasted!

Even more precision cutting and sewing was involved when “letting out” mink and other furs. Because fur pelts are shorter than needed for a full-length coat, several rows of pelts can be sewn one above the other (“skin-on-skin”). But for a more elegant, flowing look the pelts are “let-out” with dozens of diagonal slices; each slice is shifted slightly downward before the pieces are reassembled into a longer, narrower strip. The long strips are sewn together into wider panels, wet, stretched, and nailed leather-side-up onto the blocking board. When dry, like full pelts, they can then be trimmed to the pattern.

An “operator” then assembled the trimmed front, back, sleeve, and collar sections with a “fur machine”, delicately pushing the fur hairs apart with his fingers as he fed the leather through two geared wheels that joined the pelts edge-to-edge -- rather than overlapping, like a regular sewing machine, which would make the seams too thick.

Once the fur sections were assembled, it was time for the “finishers” (almost always women) to sew in the silk lining, buttons, and other accessories, by hand. After a final cleaning and brushing, the new fur garment was ready to be shipped to the retail fur store.

That is how fur garments were made long before I visited my grandfather’s workshop, and it’s the same way they are made today. Whenever I bring someone into a fur atelier – even people who work in other sectors of the clothing industry – they are amazed that this sort of meticulous and highly-skilled handcraft work is still done.

Europe's Loss, Montreal's Gain

My grandfather had learned his fur-crafting skills from his own father, in Paris, where the family had fled from pogroms in Romania at the end of the 19th Century. He arrived in Montreal as a young man, in 1913, and – with thousands of other Jewish immigrants – helped to make Montreal one of the foremost clothing manufacturing centres of North America.

By the mid-1950s, there were hundreds of small fur-crafting ateliers like my grandfather’s in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg -- and Jewish furriers were increasingly assisted by a new wave of immigrants from Kastoria and other mountain villages of northern Greece. Kastoria (from the Greek kastori = beaver) had been a fur production centre as long ago as the 14th Century; many homes there now had fur machines and these Kastorian furriers had honed their sewing skills since they were children.

French Canadians (with Italians and others) also worked in the Montreal fur trade. Many would open retail fur shops across the province, where their fur-working skills allowed them to provide repairs and restyling, as well as custom orders. Unlike most fashion retailers, many fur stores still have an active workshop in the back.

By the 1970s and 1980s, with beaver, coyote, lynx and other wild furs trending in fashion and fur sales booming, Montreal fur manufacturers began exporting to the US, Europe, and around the world, while continuing to service their domestic Canadian markets. The Montreal NAFFEM (originally the North American Fur & Fashion Exposition in Montreal) became the most important fur apparel trade show on the continent, attracting hundreds of international buyers to the city each Spring.

Markets never stop evolving, however, and in recent years consumers have been offered an increasingly wide range of cold-weather clothing options, including down-filled parkas, “puffer” coats. and other lightweight, relatively inexpensive products. Fur apparel (like other clothing) could now also be made more cheaply in low-labour-cost places like China – a country  with its own long fur-working heritage.

With increasingly difficult business conditions (exacerbated by aggressive animal activists) and an aging labour force, the Montreal fur-fabrication sector (like the rest of the city’s once-formidable clothing industry) is fast declining. So, I was very happy when my friend Claire Beaugrand-Champagne – a respected Quebec documentary photographer – said she wanted to photograph Montreal’s fur artisans.

Montreal is a city with deep roots in the fur trade. Montagnais hunters traded furs here with Iroquoian farmers long before Europeans arrived. From the 17th Century – because rapids at the west end of the island prevented ocean-going ships from sailing further upstream -- Montreal became the hub of a growing international fur trade that has been well documented by historians. The story of Montreal’s fur fabrication industry, however, has been largely overlooked.

Claire’s photos are a beautiful tribute to the people of Montreal's fur manufacturing industry, and an important documentary record of this remarkable craft heritage.

*   *   *

Claire Beaugrand-Champagne is a highly respected Quebec documentary photographer whose work reveals the individuality and humanity of her subjects. She was the first woman in Quebec to be an accredited newspaper photographer. You can see more of Claire’s work on her website.

On Nov. 23-24, all the right people – leaders from the European Union and Canada – were gathered in St. John’s for the Canada-EU Summit. Those of us representing Canadians who make their livings in remote and rural areas from Prince Rupert to Newfoundland’s outports, by harvesting fur and seals, were hopeful. Meetings such as these provide high-level government representatives with an opportunity to discuss issues that matter to their respective governments behind closed doors and far removed from everyday citizens.

And, this summit was different. Instead of being monitored only by political gadflies and lobbyists, people in remote communities across Eastern and Northern Canada watched closely. They watched because the summit was held in Newfoundland, where the ocean and its bounties have long been the bedrock of the economy and culture.

This, of course, is the same St. John’s that once was home port to steamers, which brought hundreds of Newfoundlanders to the ice of the North Atlantic to harvest seals. The same St. John’s where European celebrities descended to hold press conferences in front of TV cameras to attack the livelihoods of hunters who put their lives on the line on the ice to provide for their families. The same St. John’s where, for over 30 years, the elected officials of the provincial government sat on sealskin chairs as they debated the business of the day.

In 2009, the predecessors of those same EU officials who were fêted in St. John’s banned the trade of Canadian seal products, striking a blow to rural communities across Eastern and Northern Canada that had relied on the hunting of seals for hundreds of years. Regulation No 1007/2009 inflicted untold damage not only to communities in Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, but also to Inuit communities across Canada’s North.

The impact on Inuit communities was the genesis of a challenge to the ban in the European Court of Justice, brought by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and supported by the Fur Institute of Canada and others. This was followed by a challenge by the Government of Canada at the World Trade Organization. Though it upheld the ban, the WTO challenge forced the EU to allow an exemption for seals harvested by “Inuit and other Indigenous communities”.

This is the exemption that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said was “working well” and that a “good balance” had been found on seals. This is completely and unambiguously false. Only two bodies in Canada are recognized as being able to certify that a seal product comes from an Indigenous harvest: the Government of Nunavut and the Government of Northwest Territories. In a report from her own Commission, it shows that Nunavut has only exported two sealskins to Europe, in 2020, and the Northwest Territories exported just two sealskin coats, in 2022.

European Sealers Also Hamstrung

Perhaps even more revealingly, that same report contains four EU member states saying that the ban’s “impact has gone beyond its intended purpose”. These four states – Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Sweden – all still have their own seal hunts but are hamstrung the same way Canadian sealers are when it comes to trading their products.

In terms which would be shockingly familiar to anyone on Canada’s East Coast, these states raise concerns about the impacts of seals eating cod and salmon, about infecting fish with parasites, and impacts on commercial and recreational fisheries.

Unfortunately, EU and Canadian officials did not avail themselves of an ideal opportunity to reverse the historic injustice of the 2009 seal ban when they gathered in St. John’s.

But it’s not too late. The European Commission is launching a review of the Regulation on Trade in Seal Products in 2024. Canada can, should, and must work closely with the EU member states that are unhappy with the ban, supported by Canada’s sealing industry and Indigenous leadership, to overturn the regulation.

We also need European Commission leadership to engage honestly and candidly on the damage done by this ban and chart a course to move beyond the mistakes of the past. This conversation must be elevated to the most senior levels and involve representatives of the industry and Indigenous communities directly impacted, not the extremist animal-activist groups whose goal is to destroy the way of life of people who live close to the land – and sea – and who use renewable natural resources responsibly and sustainably..

Revised Jan. 11, 2024.

There have been some dramatic changes in the fur auction scene in the last few years, so we thought it was time to make sure everybody – not just trappers and fur farmers, but anyone with an interest in the fur trade -- is up to speed.

In the most general sense, there has been considerable continuity. Most North American fur is still sold at public auction, although more wild fur is now bought from trappers by small- and large-scale collectors who then sell directly to domestic or foreign brokers or manufacturers.

Where there has been dramatic change is in the faces of the major players.

Rewind Just Five Years

Until very recently, North America boasted three important fur auction houses: North American Fur Auctions (NAFA) with its main facilities based in Toronto; American Legend Cooperative (ALC), headquartered in Seattle; and Fur Harvesters Auction (FHA), a trapper-owned cooperative in North Bay, Ontario.

The largest of these was NAFA, the successor to the fur auction business of the Hudson’s Bay Company, a company that once controlled more than half of Canada, and -- founded in 1670 -- is one of the oldest, continually operating joint-share corporations in the world. Owned by the trappers and farmers who shipped to it, NAFA handled both wild and farmed furs, although farmed mink accounted for the largest share of its business in dollar terms.

With farmed mink, NAFA was in direct competition with ALC, a cooperative owned by US mink farmers, and holder of the “Blackglama” brand, arguably the most recognizable fur label in the world. FHA was NAFA’s main competitor for wild fur.

Then the seemingly stable fur auction scene began to change, and fast!

The first shock came in 2018, when ALC announced it was winding down. NAFA bought significant ALC assets, including the Blackglama label, while other assets went to the New York-based Tax family. With a long history of involvement in the fur trade as brokers, the Tax family quickly moved to set up a new US auction specifically for farmed mink, American Mink Exchange (AME).

Then, the very next year, in 2019, squeezed by a cycle of falling fur prices after several years of record highs and rapid expansion, NAFA closed its own doors after filing for creditor protection. Within just a few years, North America had lost its two largest fur auctions, and gained a brand new -- although much smaller -- one.

Which brings us to today. Who are the main players now, and how is North American wild and farmed fur brought to market?

FHA continues its role as an important seller of North American wild fur, and is the only auction house now doing so. FHA has always also sold some farmed pelts, especially foxes -- they now handle most of the farmed fox pelts produced in Canada and the US -- but their offerings of farmed mink have remained quite small.

Since the demise of NAFA, more North American wild fur is now also bought and sold by collectors and dealers, notably Illinois-based Groenewold Fur and Wool. GFW also buys small quantities of farmed fur, mostly third-section goods in both Canada and the US.

Some North American farmed mink is sold at auction – or in “private treaty” sales -- by AME, which has also leased the licence for the Blackglama label.

But the majority of Canadian and US mink production is now handled by Saga Furs North America, an American subsidiary of Saga OJY, the Finland-based auction company created in 1938 by the Finnish Fur Breeders. North American mink is processed and graded at Saga’s new facility in Milton, Wisconsin, before being shipped to the auction sales in Helsinki.

In Europe too, there have been some major changes.

European Development

When NAFA closed its doors, it was only to be expected that more North American farmed mink would head to Europe – home to the world's largest fur auction house, Kopenhagen Fur, in Denmark, as well as Saga Furs.

But then came another upheaval. Until 2020, Denmark was the world's leading producer of farmed mink, and Kopenhagen Fur's main role was to sell the production of the Danish Fur Breeders' Association – supplemented by farmed fur from elsewhere, including North America.. Then Covid-19 struck and the Danish government made the hugely controversial and ultimately illegal order to cull the country's entire mink herd, claiming (erroneously) that this extreme measure was needed to protect public health. It was a PR disaster for the world's fur industry, and a crippling blow to Danish mink farmers, only a few of whom have expressed interest in re-stocking their farms.

As a result of this politically induced catastrophe, Kopenhagen Fur is now winding down operations. With millions of mink pelts in storage, it will continue holding auctions through 2024, but this will probably conclude its offerings.

This leaves Saga Furs as the world’s largest fur auction house. Saga deals only in farmed furs, primarily mink, fox and finnraccoon, and with the demise of both NAFA and Kopenhagen Fur, has increasingly been handling North American farmed mink. Although the auctions are held in Finland, Canadian and US mink are sold under a separate North American catalogue, and all the mink are certified by the Canada Mink Breeders Association (CMBA) or Fur Commission USA.

As this brief survey shows, the last five years have been a rough ride for fur auction houses. For fur farmers, trappers, and others in the trade too, as revenues declined considerably from the record high mink prices registered barely a decade ago – a contraction magnified by the shutdown of important Chinese retail markets during Covid.

But with world mink production now considerably reduced and markets in China and elsewhere bouncing back, there are already signs that demand (and prices) for both wild and farmed furs are once again improving.

Not least important, as society becomes more concerned about environmental sustainability, fur checks all the boxes: natural, long-lasting, recyclable, and ultimately biodegradable.

The fur trade has survived many crises in its long history; it will be interesting to see what the next years will bring!

SEE ALSO: After years of crises it's clear: Fur auctions are the only way to ensure fair prices. By Mark Downey, Fur Harvesters Auction, for Truth About Fur, Feb. 26, 2021.

On July 28-29, the Fur Institute of Canada descended on Whitehorse, Yukon, for its first in-person Annual General Meeting in three years, and also to mark its 40th anniversary. As part of the celebrations it revived its Awards Program, honouring lifelong contributions to the fur trade.

This year, three awards were presented: the Lloyd Cook Award, the Honorary Lifetime Membership Award, and the North American Furbearer Conservation Award.

Lloyd Cook Award

The Lloyd Cook Award was first presented by the FIC in 1993 in recognition of its namesake's commitment to excellence in trapping, trapper education and public understanding of wildlife management. Among the posts held by Lloyd in his lifetime were the presidency of the Canadian Trappers Federation and of the Ontario Trappers Association, forerunner of today's Ontario Fur Managers Federation.

This year's Lloyd Cook Award went to Robert Stitt, a valued member of the FIC for almost two decades. Robert was unable to attend the presentation, so the award was accepted on his behalf by Ryan Sealy, a conservation officer with the Government of Yukon.

Robert grew up in Ontario where he spent decades trapping and guiding hunters, before moving to Yukon in 2008. One of the first things he did on arriving was to join the Yukon Trappers Association (YTA), and, despite his enormous experience, signing up for the territory's Basic Trapper Education course. To this day, he is a director of the YTA, as well as being a past president.

For the past 15 years, Robert has run a trapline in a remote part of southeast Yukon, harvesting marten, beaver, wolf and wolverine. In most years, he offers upgrading workshops, particularly for marten and beaver pelt-handling and management, and also provides a mobile fur depot service in several communities.

In 2011, Robert became a guest presenter for the Yukon Government's trapper education program, and in 2020 became an instructor. Students regularly comment on his close connection to the bush, his willingness to help new trappers, and his strong advocacy for humane trapping and good fur-handling.

Indeed, Robert's fur-handling skills are renowned, and the reason he has won many competitions. When teaching, he highly recommends his students read the Fur Harvesters Auction manual Pelt Handling for Profit.

Robert's other claims to fame are diverse. He is known as a presenter and writer, regaling audiences with inspirational tales of overcoming extreme challenges in the wilderness. He often writes letters to the editor on wildlife management issues, has published several stories about his life on the trapline, and is a regular contributor to Canadian Trapper magazine. And he is also a renowned moose-hunting guide, and a valued reporter on birds and other wildlife on his trapline.

Honorary Lifetime Membership Award

The FIC's Honorary Lifetime Membership Award celebrates people with long and distinguished track records of service to the fur trade, this year going to a man who has been involved with the institute from its inception, Yukon resident Harvey Jessup.

Harvey started his career in fish and wildlife management as a conservation officer, moving from enforcement to management in 1977 as a furbearer technician assisting with research on furbearer species such as marten, beaver, lynx, wolverine and wolves. This research led to the development of trapline management strategies for these key species. With the assistance of many Yukon trappers, the Yukon Trappers Association, the Manitoba Trappers Association, and the Canadian Trappers Federation, he developed a trapper education manual and training program for Yukon that is still in use today. He sat on the Western Canadian Fur Managers Committee which would later be incorporated into the Canadian Fur Managers Committee.

In 1982, Harvey became the fur harvest manager responsible for traplines, monitoring fur harvest and delivering trapper training. He continued as a member of the Canadian Fur Managers Committee. He attended the founding meeting of the FIC, was appointed to its first Board, and went on to serve for over 20 years. He held positions on the Executive and chaired the Trap Research and Development Committee for six years. He also participated on ISO191 through to the development of the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards. 

His responsibilities with Environment Yukon expanded to include all wildlife harvest, managing licensed hunting, determining outfitter quotas and tracking harvest. He eventually became Director of the Fish and Wildlife Branch, before retiring in 2009.

In 2010, he was appointed to the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board (YFWMB), a government advisory body established under Yukon First Nation Final Agreements, and served as chair for two years. Interestingly, the Director of Fish and Wildlife is identified in the Land Claim as the YFWMB's technical support, so Harvey has sat on both sides of the table so to speak!

In 2015 he was appointed to the Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee, a Land Claims advisory board on all matters pertaining to salmon in Yukon, again serving as chair for two years.

Throughout the latter part of his career and while sitting on the YFWMB, Harvey worked closely with Renewable Resources Councils, local government fish and wildlife advisory committees that have direct responsibilities for all matters pertaining to trapping.

North American Furbearer Conservation Award

The North American Furbearer Conservation Award aims to promote awareness and recognition of individuals and organisations that have made significant efforts in the field of sustainable furbearer management. This year's award went to Mike O’Brien from Nova Scotia.

On graduating from Acadia University with a master's degree in wildlife biology, Mike worked as a wildlife manager for the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables of the Government of Nova Scotia. He then became a consultant for many different wildlife management sectors, including the wild fur trade.

Mike has been an FIC Board member since 1998, serving first on the Trap Research and Development Committee, and currently as chair of the Communications Committee. He is also a member of the Executive Committee.

In his work for the FIC, Mike's forte is representing the institute at conferences involving diverse stakeholders and often contentious negotiations. These include the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. He also works closely with other key stakeholders such as Environment and Climate Change Canada and the International Organization for Standardization.

This year marks the passing of four decades since the Fur Institute of Canada was founded in 1983, with the primary function of overseeing the testing and certification of humane traps. To mark the occasion, it has launched a new logo, but is the change purely cosmetic or is there more here than meets the eye? To find out, Truth About Fur interviewed Executive Director Doug Chiasson.

Truth About Fur: The FIC's original logo showed a beaver, a Canadian icon. Then it changed to another national icon, the maple leaf. Now you've combined the two, but with the beaver taking pride of place. What's the thinking here?

Doug Chiasson: When an organization celebrates a significant milestone, as the FIC is doing this year with our 40th anniversary, it's time for self-reflection. So we can see that while our most recent logo, of a maple leaf, did a great job of communicating “Canada”, it didn't communicate “fur” at all.

By putting a beaver front and centre, we remind people that fur and furbearing animals are our focus. And as a nod to the past, the maple leaf also appears in the roundel.

SEE ALSO: Doug Chiasson: What does the Fur Institute's new ED bring to the table? Truth About Fur, June 2022.

Why a Beaver?

TAF: Anyone with knowledge of Canada's history will understand the relevance of the beaver, but can you explain for non-historians?

DC: We often say that the history of the fur trade is the history of Canada. The pursuit of fur, particularly beaver pelts, was a defining feature of early European presence in North America and of relations with Indigenous nations. It played a role in establishing the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, whose forts and factories are the sites of present-day communities across Northern and Western Canada.

That influence was reflected by the beaver's inclusion on the nickel coin since 1937, and its designation as Canada’s national animal in 1975.

Canada is fortunate to have a great diversity of fur resources, but when we think of fur and Canada, we think first of the beaver.

Absorbing Fur Council of Canada

TAF: The Fur Council of Canada has been around since 1964, representing the interests of the downstream side of the fur business (retailers, manufacturers, etc.). Now the FIC is in the process of absorbing the FCC. Why is this happening, and why now?

DC: It's no secret that the fur industry, not only in Canada but around the world, has faced significant adversity in recent years. The war in Ukraine, Covid-19, climate change, and other factors have hurt the entire fur value chain. So the FCC found itself in a position where it could no longer deliver on its mandate as a stand-alone organization.

TAF: So with the FIC now representing the upstream and the downstream sides of the fur trade, how will the entire trade benefit?

DC: In the past, having two national organizations representing the fur trade could cause confusion, but those days are over. Having just one organization represent Canada across the whole spectrum of the fur trade will put us all in a stronger position when it comes to advocating for fur. Whether we're talking to government, the media or consumers, there should no longer be any doubt that Canada's fur trade speaks with one voice.

Broadening Membership

TAF: From its founding, the FIC's primary role has been the testing and certification of humane traps, so it's understandable that your membership includes a lot of trapping associations. Will the FIC now be looking to broaden its membership base?

DC: As you say, the trap testing and certification program has always been a major motivator for trapping associations to support the FIC. That will not change with these recent developments. Other sectors of the trade have always been welcome to become members, but usually they would choose to join either the FIC or the FCC. Now there is no need for them to make that choice.

We're also no strangers to representing trade sectors other than trappers, most notably the sealing sector. Through projects like Canadian Seal Products and Proudly Indigenous Crafts & Designs, we have shown that we are capable of far more than just trap-testing.

Greater involvement from processors, designers, brokers, manufacturers and retailers will allow us to draw on everyone's experiences and expertise, and help us to present the complete picture of fur in Canada to decision-makers and the public.

TAF: Growing the FIC's representation of downstream players is an exciting prospect, but are you also looking to bring more Indigenous organizations into the fold?

DC: We want the FIC to represent as much as possible of Canada’s fur landscape, and to that end, the Board have asked me to look for new members wherever we can find them. I am also working to develop a new Strategic Plan for the Institute, and want to bring a broad array of viewpoints into building that plan. That obviously includes Indigenous organizations, and that’s an area I am particularly focussed on.

Indigenous nations and governments are increasingly playing leadership roles in land use and wildlife management decisions across the country. In much the same way that we work with our partners in provincial and territorial governments, we want to work closely with Indigenous decision-makers and managers too.

The FIC already has a strong history of partnering with Indigenous groups on a wide range of issues, but now we hope to take it to the next level, and having them as members will certainly facilitate that.

To become an FIC member, download the application form here.

Before the Internet came along and transformed our lives, trying to get our opinions heard in the media was hard at best, and almost impossible if the newspaper, TV or radio station had national reach. As a result, most people didn't even try, including people of the fur trade. But times are changing, and certainly where local media are concerned – so much, in fact, that if you have a lifelong habit of not bothering, now would be a good time to kick it.

Realistically speaking, it's still hard to express opinions in media with very wide reach, even just a major city, unless you are invited to contribute. And for that to happen, you usually need to be a recognised authority in your field, or your views have already been published elsewhere. For Joe Shmoe, seeing just a humble letter-to-the-editor in print is still cause for astonishment and celebration.

On the local news front, though, the chances of the small guy being heard are improving all the time.

Thanks to the Internet, local media outlets have mushroomed, unfettered by constraints like the costs of newsprint, air time, or even maintaining an office. As long as you're online, you can launch a social media site, and for a few hundred bucks you can have a website or podcast. And you can then "monetize" your site to cover costs by accepting advertising.

There's a downside, of course. For example, fake news is everywhere now, and many so-called "news" sites are rubbish, existing only to generate income from clicks.

But we're all (hopefully) becoming more selective in our browsing, and quality sites have a tendency to rise to the top. Among these are local news outlets now able to realise their dreams without breaking the bank.

Perfect Example

A perfect example is VTDigger, serving the US state of Vermont since 2009. (The total population of Vermont is only about 650,000, so it's pretty local.)

In its own words, "VTDigger began as a scrappy, volunteer effort focused on investigative journalism. Since then, it has grown into Vermont’s most essential news organization, powered by more than two-dozen journalists and boasting the state’s largest newsroom."

Importantly, it doesn't just produce original reports. It also goes out of its way to encourage readers to submit opinion pieces on matters of local interest. And one of these happens to be wildlife management, with an emphasis on regulations for trapping furbearers.

So if Vermonters weren't informed before, they must now be one of the most informed communities in North America on this subject. A simple search of VTDigger's website for the term "trapping" brings up literally hundreds of opinion pieces submitted by readers, so many in fact that we'll list only a few of the more recent ones here:

Kevin Lawrence: Anti-hunters contribute nothing to Vermont’s wild places. June 11, 2023.

Jim Taylor: Four tribes of Abenaki do not support the anti-trapping movement.' June 4, 2023.

Will Staats: Vermont’s trapping culture is being threatened. May 7, 2023.

Brehan Furfey: Wildlife conservation depends on regulated trapping. April 20, 2023

Ray Gonda: The value of trapping vs. the anti-establishment animal rights persons. April 18, 2023.

Mike Covey: If you don’t like fishing, hunting or trapping, then don’t partake. February 8, 2023.

Bruce Baroffio: Trapping has a process for best management practices. February 7, 2023.

Paul Noel: No one more than a trapper wants to avoid catching a domestic dog. January 19, 2023.

Wider Audience

As icing on the cake, many of these opinion pieces find an audience beyond readers of VTDigger – sometimes far beyond.

That others are interested is unsurprising, since the debate about trapping regulations is playing out across North America. But how does word spread?

SEE ALSO: When pet dogs are accidentally trapped, why are media reports so unbalanced? Truth About Fur.

Again, it's all down to the power of the Internet.

I first learned about VTDigger when its opinion pieces started showing up in my Google Alerts feed. This is a free web content monitoring service, but there are many others, and millions of people are using them. Or there are many other ways you might stumble on these pieces, the most common being "shares" on social media sites.

But this not an article promoting one local media site that happens to have a lot of quality trapping content. VTDigger is just an example which shows how local media are entering a golden age, and, if they're smart, they are positively encouraging their readers to engage.

SEE ALSO: "Fur Fights Back!" It's time for a strong industry communications campaign. Truth About Fur.

So if your local news site is already engaging with its audience, that's great. Get involved, and put pen to paper! If not, encourage them to change their ways, and by all means point to VTDigger as a shining example of what can be achieved.

Also tell your trappers councils, associations, and national organisations like the Fur Institute of Canada, Fur Takers of America and the National Trappers Association, when you see opportunities for us to push back on anti-trapping and anti-fur propaganda in local news.

And last but by no means least, feel free to submit your opinion to Truth About Fur for publication as a blog post.

It's been five long years since a team from the Fur Institute of Canada last descended on Parliament Hill, thanks in part to travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic. So, the revival of Fur Day on the Hill this April 18 is a cause for celebration! It's also to be hoped that Fur Day becomes an annual event that Members of Parliament, Senators and other senior government officials can mark in their diaries with confidence.

Our delegation this year was impressive, not just in numbers but also in the breadth and depth of knowledge we represented. Leading our group was current FIC Chairman Jason White, supported by Board members Mike O’Brien, Emmanuel Dalpé-Charron, Corey Grover, Nathan Kogiak, Francois Rossouw, Scott Sears, Robin Horwath, Rob Bollert and Brian Dicks.

Also joining us were Seals & Sealing Network Program Manager, Romy Vaugeois, the Ontario Fur Managers Federation General Manager, Lauren Tonelli, as well as Matt Moses of the Canada Mink Breeders Association. Ably supporting us at Fur Day headquarters was a team from Summa Strategies.

SEE ALSO: Doug Chiasson: What does the Fur Institute's new ED bring to the table? Truth About Fur, June 22, 2022.

Strong Relationship with Government

The FIC has always had a strong and important relationship with government, going back to our establishment by Wildlife Ministers in 1983. For the last forty years, we have engaged closely with federal, provincial and territorial governments, particularly in fulfilling our mandate to test and certify trap compliance with the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards.

But good relationships must be nurtured, and after a five-year absence from Parliament Hill, our reappearance was long overdue. Of course, we wanted to connect with old friends we hadn't seen in a while, but more importantly, we needed to meet a new cadre of MPs and Senators, and identify new champions for Canada’s sustainable, humane fur trade.

Many of these Parliamentarians, and especially those from rural and remote areas, represent communities where trapping plays a vital role in the local economy. So it was important for us to touch base with representatives from across the country, from the West, East and Arctic coasts and many points in between. It was also refreshing to be reminded that Canada’s fur trade is not a partisan issue, with strong support to be found in all the major political parties.

Unified Message

There is always room for improvement in the way federal government regulates businesses, and this was the thrust of our unified message on Fur Day.

Under the current arrangement, a long list of departments and agencies are involved in regulating different aspects of the fur trade. These include Environment and Climate Change Canada, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Global Affairs Canada, Industry Science and Economic Development Canada, Fisheries & Oceans Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Export Development Canada, and the seven federal Regional Development Agencies.

All these departments and agencies play their own role in determining what form the fur trade takes, and the result is often misalignment and confusion. For example, if a fur business wants to know what federal support exists for them, and how to access it, they can get lost in a bureaucratic maze.

Given that the fur sector was, until quite recently, worth more than $1 billion to the Canadian economy, it is unsurprising that we enjoy strong support among politicians at all levels of government. But what is surprising is that there is no one department within the federal government dedicated to providing a home base for the entire fur trade, and acting as our Champion.

Such a department would advocate for the fur trade at internal government talks, and just as importantly, point folks in the trade towards the right decision-makers and appropriate pots of funding to support new initiatives for fur.

Reception Time

After a long day with many meetings, we held a reception for Parliamentarians and friends of fur from Ottawa and the surrounding area. But this wasn't just a chance to wind down and relax.

Rather, it was an important opportunity to let Parliamentarians meet others from the fur trade, while also giving them a chance to appreciate the unique feel and beauty of natural fur.

To this end, our reception featured a display of fur garments, home décor, and pelts. Most of the garments and décor were provided courtesy of Rob Cahill of Cahill's Furs in Peterborough, from his Further Upcycled line. And FIC Board member Robin Horwath, who was also formerly General Manager of the Ontario Fur Managers Federation, showed dressed pelts of the various furbearers harvested across his province.

Looking Ahead

Fur Day on the Hill has just taken place for the first time in five years, and that's far too long. It was always intended to be an essential part of the FIC's lobbying efforts on Parliament Hill, on behalf of the entire fur sector.

For this reason, it is my hope that Fur Day becomes an annual event, as we strive to bring the full power of the federal government behind the fur sector, where it belongs.