Fur stories in the media are becoming increasingly nuanced as reporters strive for more balance or a new angle, or simply don't have time for the research needed to pick a side. Black and white stories that support or condemn fur unequivocally are becoming less common as editors seek somewhat more sophisticated, multi-faceted arguments -- but often what they get is just muddled thinking.

The most common problem the fur trade now faces is when so-called "balanced" reports just pit one side against the other, while making no attempt to sift the truth from the lies. The Independent did this in "Are faux alternatives more sustainable than the real thing?" Sure, a fur trade spokesman was allowed to explain that real fur is "a totally natural product, it is bio-degradable and in the case of wild fur it comes from conservation and population management projects.” But the same space is allotted to an animal rights spokeswoman, who claims, “There’s water pollution in the form of nitrogen and phosphorus from animal waste, air pollution from incinerating animal carcasses and releasing pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and hydrochloric acid.” Rather than investigating who's telling the truth, The Independent just leaves it up to readers to decide, and that doesn't really help anyone.

SEE ALSO: Is fur processing bad for the environment? TruthAboutFur website.

Meanwhile a Daily Mail writer gets totally muddled in "Don't hate me for wearing granny's fur!" Wearing vintage fur is great on every level, the writer asserts. "In so many ways it ticks the 'politically correct' box. It is a 100 per cent sustainable, renewable and biodegradable piece of vintage clothing that has been mended, reconditioned and recycled through three generations - possibly even a fourth when I offer it to my daughters." But then she says "a ban on new skins is laudable." So vintage fur is great for the environment but new fur isn't. Does that make any sense?

Another muddled argument which is simultaneously pro- and anti-fur comes from Argentine company Yerra, which makes luxury rugs from hide and fur. Says Yerra's owner, "Being environmentally conscious is very important to us and we don’t take this lightly." And what exactly does this mean? For one thing, it means only using hides and fur that are by-products of meat production. So using sheepskin and rabbit fur is "environmentally conscious" but using coyote and mink is not. Really? Why?

Speaking of different perspectives, last month TruthAboutFur interviewed fur designer Pamela Paquin from Massachusetts, who works exclusively with "accidental fur". Meanwhile, in New Zealand, Jane Avery works exclusively with invasive rabbits that are being eradicated anyway. (You may recall that TruthAboutFur interviewed Jane last year.)

Federal Protection for Wolves No Longer Needed?

Gray wolves seem to have bounced back in the US, and now the Fish and Wildlife Service wants to revoke their federal protection and put them under the authority of states across the Lower 48. "We need to take control of these wolves," says Tony Demboski of the Upper Peninsula Sportsmen's Alliance in Michigan. "They're cleaning up our deer herd, we've got people scared to go for a walk in the evenings. We've just got too many wolves."

Meanwhile, in Idaho and Montana, where wolf hunting was reinstated in 2009, the Associated Press reports that concerns this will hurt populations seem to be misplaced. "[W]olves are such prolific breeders that after each hunting season, their numbers bounced back the next spring. That continued even as wildlife regulators loosened trapping restrictions and allowed individual hunters and trappers to harvest multiple animals."

And speaking of wolves, the Labrador Winter Games was a chance to hold a week of seminars on clothing design, and fur sewers came from across Canada. Wolf hat, anyone?

Demand for pelts of the wolf's smaller cousin, the coyote, remains strong, says the Associated Press in "Popularity of fur-trimmed parkas a boon for coyote trappers". If you're in the mood for audio rather than print, listen to the Marketplace's take on the coyote market here:

Bits 'n' Bobs

We're thrilled for Brenda Dragon and her Fort Smith-based company, Aurora Heat, that makes fur-lined hand and foot warmers. Brenda wrote a blog post for TruthAboutFur back in 2017, when she was starting out. Now she's set for a bigger market, as Hudson's Bay Company has begun stocking her beaver fur hand-warmers in its Winnipeg store.

Jim Gibb, chairman of the Fur Institute of Canada, has a novel perspective of sustainability, as he told TruthAboutFur in "Living sustainably: A trapper’s thoughts on orange juice".

And since we started this news roundup discussing mixed messages, let's end with the viral story of YouTube "star" Yovana Mendoza Ayres. Yovana promotes a vegan lifestyle to her 2.5 million subscribers, but they turned on her when another YouTuber filmed Yovana eating ... fish! Her excuse? Her doctor said her vegan diet was harming her health!

Vegan fashion is a buzz term for clothing that doesn't use any animal products. Often promoted by activists as "cruelty-free" fashion, it's all the rage in some circles. But for every consumer who refuses to wear anything but plants and petrochemicals, there's someone else eager to explain that such choices may be doing more harm than good. Needless to say, the fur trade is extremely interested in this debate.

"There's a strong ethical case for wearing leather and fur" is one of the best overviews we've seen in the war of ideas between animal-based clothing and vegan fashion. True, it's a book review, of Putting on the dog: The animal origins of what we wear by Melissa Kwasny, so it's like reading CliffsNotes. But it makes all the right points. Consider this a "must read".

Fashion United also took a hard look at "Vegan vs animal-based fashion: which one is more sustainable?" "What is sold as vegan 'leather' is often nothing but polyester or polyurethane," writes Regina Henkel. "In other words, a plastic fiber that first of all, is made from crude oil and is therefore not renewable. Second, it is not biodegradable and thus littering our planet and third, reaches the food chain in the form of microplastics."

The Daily Mail also piled into vegan fashion. "Plastic fibres that pollute our oceans, factories using toxic chemicals, clothes that never decompose: Devotees think they’re saving the planet but we reveal the guilty secret about vegan fashion."

The Daily Sabah looked at the damage being done to the planet by fast fashion, singling out vegan leather for special criticism. "... for companies using vegan leather, they have to be more transparent with their customers and declare the chemicals that they use while processing the fake leather and explain every step that the vegan leather goes through before reaching its customers."

That's called traceability. Increasingly, consumers want full disclosure about how products are brought to market, and TruthAboutFur is happy to report that the fur trade is ahead of the curve. A comprehensive new certification program, FurMark, is set to be rolled out next year.

Meanwhile, riding on the popularity of vegan fashion, PETA et al. are pushing hard to have all animal products expunged from the fashion scene, even those that don't involve killing. In "First fur, now wool?" Bill Wirtz of the Consumer Choice Center explains that "The war on animal products is bad for conservation and bad for the poor."

"Gibb's Adventures"

The name Jim Gibb is familiar to Canada's trapping community. When he's not trapping, he's keeping bees, operating a saw mill, and serving as chairman of the Fur Institute of Canada. Jim recently launched a YouTube channel "to showcase how we, as rural people, live our lives. I am very disappointed by how people are portrayed by others who don’t understand trapping, hunting, fishing," he told Timmins Today. "My plan is to showcase what we do and how we do it so that those who are interested can see for themselves." Check out "Gibb's Adventures" on YouTube here.

In other hunting and trapping news, coyotes continue to grab the headlines, thanks to the amazing popularity of coyote-trimmed parkas. Aside from being a boon to trappers, this is also benefiting companies selling the parkas, and Canada Goose wants to give back. It commissioned 14 Inuit seamstresses to create one-of-a-kind jackets, and all proceeds from their sale will go to the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a non-profit serving Inuit communities in Canada's north.

In case you're wondering whether there are enough coyotes to go round, fear not. "It's been shown over and over again that coyotes can't be eradicated," says Laura Palmer with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife to the Messenger-Inquirer. "Their density is so high and they're so resilient that neighbouring coyotes will just move [into their place] in just a matter of months and you're going to be back to square one."

SEE ALSO: Will urban coyotes change the animal rights debate?

Farewell Karl Lagerfeld

Last month, the iconic creative director of both Chanel and Fendi, and owner of his eponymous fashion label, Karl Lagerfeld, passed away. Articles celebrating his life were all over the media, so here are just a couple of good ones, from The Independent, and Women's Wear Daily. He will always be remembered as a fierce champion of fur, saying: “In a meat-eating world, wearing leather for shoes and even clothes, the discussion of fur is childish.”

And in other miscellaneous news ...

• Are you a fur retailer? Is business slow? Maybe you can pick up some tips from TruthAboutFur's blog post "The art and science of making sales".

• A price of Facebook's popularity is that it is under enormous pressure to censor the content its users post - and we're not just talking fake news. Presumably as a knee-jerk reaction to complaints from animal rights groups, it's been blocking ... then unblocking ... then blocking ads by an Alaskan native selling sea otter fur hats. The same thing has been happening with sealskin products.

• Continuing a long tradition, started by Joe Namath, of gracing the Super Bowl wearing in-your-face fur, rapper Big Boi joined the halftime show at LIII in a full-length red fox fur coat. Inevitably, PETA had a hissy fit.

• We're assured this is an isolated incident and polar bears are not taking over, but the inhabitants of Novaya Zemlya in Russia have had enough! Following a huge influx of bears, a state of emergency has been called, but hunting them is banned, reports the Siberian Times. What to do?

Our favourite story last month came from Minnesota where coyote fur is helping to fight cancer! A lot of creative ways are used to raise money for charity, but this is the first time we've heard of a coyote hunting event, appropriately called Coyotes Fur Cancer. A bunch of hunters spend the day stalking the critters, then they bring their catch to a popular gathering spot, Blooming Prairie Cue Company, where their families and friends are tucking into chili. There's a silent auction and a raffle, the coyotes end up with a buyer, and all the proceeds go to the Blooming Prairie Cancer Group. In its inaugural event last year, Coyotes Fur Cancer raised $17,000, and we've heard that this year's event made $25,000!

Of course, the reason coyote fur currently makes a good fundraiser is the high prices pelts are fetching, buoyed by the popularity of fur-lined parkas. At the first sale of the season by the Ohio State Trappers Association, the Sandusky Register called coyote pelts "the stars of the auction. ... Although the softer, paler-colored western fur is preferred, the demand cannot be met without using eastern pelts, too."

More evidence of the popularity of coyote-lined parkas was seen in Chicago during the recent super-cold snap. Eight people wearing Canada Goose coats had them stolen right off their backs at gunpoint!

Fur-lined parkas are hugely popular in England too. A TruthAboutFur member put boots on the ground there over Christmas, and was astonished to see fur-lined parkas (real and fake) everywhere. See "Brexit, fur-trimmed parkas and trendy vegans in London Town".

Coyotes also continue to make the news for the wrong reason: their increasing, and sometimes scary, presence in built-up areas. In Destin, Florida, coyotes are now “a really bad problem”, while residents of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, are alarmed at the increase in coyote sightings.

SEE ALSO: Will urban coyotes change the animal rights debate?

Furbearers in BC, Fishers in Montana

In wild fur news, all is not well in the forests of British Columbia. According to trappers, furbearer populations are declining because prime habitat is being lost to a host of causes, like over-logging, herbicides, wild fires and pine beetles. It's interesting to note that it is trappers who are sounding the alarm here. They are an important source of information for wildlife managers and conservationists.

SEE ALSO: Trapping and Sustainability, on TruthAboutFur's website.

Meanwhile, it's unclear how the Northern Rockies fishers of Montana are doing. A campaign has been launched to ban all trapping in fisher habitat, with supporters saying trapping, including accidental catches, is a serious threat to the species. But a federal study found no evidence of this. The one thing everyone agrees on is they don't know how many there are.

REMIX, Black Women in Fur

On the fashion front, 10 finalists have been selected to compete in REMIX 2019. This prestigious contest, hosted by the International Fur Federation and supported by Vogue Talents, nurtures young international designers who love working with fur. The final will be held in Milan on February 24. “The new generation is our future," said Sara Sozzani Maino, deputy editor in chief of Vogue Italia and head of Vogue Talents. "Never before in our history has it been so essential to look at sustainability and start thinking about producing in a sustainable way. REMIX gives designers the opportunity to enhance the concept of sustainability by creating special projects.“

The New York Times ran a piece last month with a take on fur that we've not heard before: "A Black Legacy, Wrapped Up in Fur". Is there really a race angle to anti-fur campaigning? “As soon as black women could afford to buy mink coats, white society and white women said fur was all wrong," is the claim. Whether you think there's something to this or not, this will get the grey cells working.

It's unofficial, but apparently a fur-trimmed coat from Copenhagen-based brand Saks Potts is the "most highly documented coat on all of Instagram." Says the blog Who What Wear, "Log onto Instagram on any given day and you'd be hard-pressed not to come across one of the many candy-coloured creations styled by fashion girls or worn by one of the brand's many celebrity fans like Kendall Jenner and Cardi B."

Industry Overviews

The fur trade strives to educate the public about how we operate, so it's great when the media help to spread the word. Last month we were spoiled for industry overviews.

The Cache Valley Daily took a look at the state of mink farming in the US through the eyes of an Idaho family and Michael Whelan of Fur Commission USA, with over-production being a particular concern. “Retail sales are as good as they have ever been. We do see light at the end of the tunnel,” Whelan said. “At its peak, there were 80 million pelts on the market. We are down to 40 to 50 (million) pelts this year, more in line with the demand.”

Women's Wear Daily also did an overview of the fur retail market. Negative news tends to grab the headlines, but sales tell a different story. "While designer labels like Gucci, Burberry and Michael Kors have vowed to go fur-free, the fur trade is estimated to be a $35.8 million business at retail," it reported.

On the trapping front, have you ever wondered what trappers do with their pelts after they're dressed and ready for market? And here's a realistic look at the state of trapping in West Virginia, including why lovers of the pastime still do it. "It is easy to see where the lure (no pun intended) of trapping can get you," says lifelong outdoorsman Roger Wolfe. "When you are checking your set ups it can feel like Christmas morning. You never know what might be just up around the bend."

Educating people about the fur trade and related lifestyles can take many forms. Sharon Firth, a four-time Olympian and Northwest Territories skiing legend, is lobbying senators and members of Parliament to incorporate fur into the next Canadian Olympic uniform. Firth and her late twin sister Shirley were the first female Indigenous athletes to represent Canada at the Winter Olympics. "The last time they had real fur was the 1972 Olympics and I'm proud to say that I was there wearing real fur on my parka," Firth told CBC. She specifically called out the red parkas worn by Canadian athletes at the 2010 Olympics, which were adorned with fake fur. "The fur industry has a history in the North and then to have fake fur on coats, that's crazy. We're not plastic people. It's pitiful."

In New York, the public High School of Fashion Industries has revived its teaching of working with fur, with all materials provided by Fur New York. The school is located just south of the city's old Fur District, once home to more than 450 fur businesses. Now only 130 remain, employing 1,100 people, many of them nearing retirement, and Fur New York is eager to see new workers enter the trade.

Meanwhile, the Nova Scotia association Women that Hunt has started serving meals of wild meat to families who use local food banks and shelters. Helping the Hungry is a joint initiative of the hunting community and Feed Nova Scotia, which allows hunters to donate a portion of their deer, moose or bear meat to help feed families. In turn, Women that Hunt hope to educate and inspire women and youth into the hunting and fishing lifestyle.

Or you can educate people by taking to the air waves, like Jen Shears, owner of Natural Boutique in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, specialising in seal products. Shears has some choice words for protesters outside her store, calling them an “elitist cult” engaged in “a special kind of narcissism” based on “short-sighted emotion” and “racist and unsustainable beliefs.” But at least business has been good. "Business has been booming the last couple of days thanks to the advertising that has come about because of these protesters," says Shears. "When you make a bunch of Newfoundlanders mad then they really support you and support the messages around the sustainable culture that we have here."

Chanel Drops Exotic Skins, but Continues with Responsible Fur

Designer brands are headline-grabbers when it comes to the debate about sustainable use and fashion. In 2017, it was Gucci's misguided justification for dropping real fur that focused media attention on the sustainability of real fur versus fake fur and other synthetics made of petroleum. A question inevitably raised at the time was how Gucci could justify dropping fur while continuing to use exotic skins like alligator and python. Gucci dodged the question, but that is harder to do now that rival brand Chanel has announced it will be dropping exotic skins while maintaining responsibly sourced fur.

According to a Chanel statement: “We are continually reviewing our supply chains to ensure they meet our expectations of integrity and traceability. In this context, it is our experience that it is becoming increasingly difficult to source exotic skins which match our ethical standards.”

In reality, it seems to have been a purely business decision, less about ethical standards and more about Chanel's failure to maintain supply chains for top-quality materials. Business of Fashion said Chanel had simply been squeezed out of supply chains controlled by other brands, while Christy Plott, an operator of crocodile and alligator farms in Florida, told BoF, “This is 100 percent the case of Chanel being a loser in this market and being pushed out by Hermès, Kering and LVMH."

But whatever Chanel's real reason for dropping exotic skins, the principles involved in the conservation and sustainable use of crocs and pythons are precisely the same as those applied to some furbearers. It was thus important when representatives of the International Union for Conservation of Nature pointed out the positive role played by luxury skin markets both in conserving certain wild species and providing livelihoods for humans who live with and depend on these wildlife.

Fake Furs Shown to Share Problems with Other Plastics

Meanwhile, the industry's effort to point out the serious problems with fake fur continues to gain traction in mainstream media, including WWD's "Plastic waste fuels the fire in faux vs. real fur debate," The Frisky's "How does faux fur compare to real fur coats", and The Independent's "Fashion industry turns a blind eye with unsustainable fake fur, says MP Mary Creagh." The debate is also being thrashed out on a local level in Dallas, Texas, where, despite the balmy temperatures, a furrier says he hasn't seen even the slightest dip in business over the last few years. "We have so much business we don’t have to advertise," Marcene Reiss says.

Despite some attention being given to the environmental problems of fake furs and other petroleum-based synthetics, TruthAboutFur's senior researcher, Alan Herscovici, decries the paucity of facts and serious analysis in the media's coverage of the fur debate, and would like to see more in-depth coverage of fur's sustainability credentials.

Nonetheless, TheFashionLaw.com suggested that "The conversation about fur became far more nuanced in 2018." Most interesting, TheFashionLaw makes a case for an important view that's rarely heard in the media: that designer brands are dropping fur simply to increase profits. "Fashion companies can save a lot of money and increase their profit margins by making faux fur coats and selling them at a similar price to real fur coats,” says one interviewee, journalist Alden Wicker. ”The motivation is money, not altruism.”

Another is "Fur and the necessity of consumer engagement". "Buying a faux fur coat does not make one an ethical consumer, and neither does eschewing plastic straws," explains Alison McArthur. "... Educating ourselves on these issues will allow us to become more conscious consumers and to make better informed decisions about our purchases. It would allow us to consider, for example, why many of us wouldn’t wear real fur, but would be perfectly content to buy a leather handbag or shoes."

Bits 'n' Bobs

The US Congress has agreed to make it easier to kill sea lions to help protect runs of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River and its tributaries. In addition to helping conservation efforts, this move is a rare case of introducing flexibility to the application of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which has banned all takes of marine mammals since 1972.

According to John Zander of raw fur company Zander & Sons, China is playing an important role in the raw fur market, due to high demand for finished products and low dressing costs. "We know two things, one is there are a lot of Chinese who want to wear fur and second, the manufacturing end over there is a fraction of what it costs us. To dress a coyote here costs us $15. They do it for $6 in China. Over there they dress a muskrat for $1. Here it costs $6 which is more than the original price of the pelt.”

And last but not least, here's a great video on trapping in Saskatchewan, with a focus on the role trapping plays in the conservation of wildlife populations.

Some populations of large wildlife appear to be thriving, on both sides of the Atlantic, which is great from a conservation viewpoint, and sometimes good for hunters and trappers, but usually not so good for the people who live alongside these dangerous animals.

One species of large wildlife that's causing conflict across North America is the "urban coyote", so it's fortunate that the market for coyote pelts is strong, thanks in large part to Canada Goose's coyote-lined parkas and their imitators. In Saskatchewan, producer of some of the finest coyote pelts, trappers are now setting records. The coyote harvest in 2017-18 was the highest on record, accounting for a staggering 83% of all income from wild furs. Not surprisingly, the number of trapping licenses issued was also up, which the president of the Saskatchewan Trappers Association, Wrangler Hamm, says is a national trend.

Staying in Canada, experts still can't agree on whether polar bear populations are going up, down, or sideways. Most authorities, including Environment Canada, say the overall trend is down, but Inuit in Nunavut say there are so many now, they're a threat to human safety. A proposed management plan, to go to public hearing this week, calls for a relaxation of hunting restrictions.

Meanwhile south of the border, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would remove gray wolves nationwide from protection under the Endangered Species Act and open them to state hunting and trapping seasons. Farmers and ranchers won't be celebrating just yet though. Similar bills have passed the House in recent years but stalled in the Senate.

And over in Europe, it's great that conservation programs for wolves and bears are working, but inevitable that conflicts with humans, in particular farmers, are increasing. In France alone, wolves killed 10,000 sheep in 2016. Now the EU has promised to stick taxpayers with the bill for compensating farmers for any damages, plus costs for electric fences and guard dogs. Culling has its supporters, and that support will only grow the more successful these conservation programs are.

Plastic Clothing No Good - All Agreed?

The opinion now appears to be unanimous that plastic fast fashion, including most fake fur, is bad for the environment, but it bears repeating until everyone gets the message. Remember, the revelation that plastic microfibres are turning up everywhere has only been on everyone's lips for a couple of years. So it's bitter-sweet to learn that plastic has now been found in the poop of fur seals and, inevitably, humans.

Blogger and influencer Samantha De Riviziis, a.k.a. Lady Fur, told Italian wire service ANSA that purveyors of plastic clothing must be more honest about what they're selling. "There's a lot of confusion," she says. "Designers should communicate more clearly with consumers, defining what it means to be 'organic', 'eco', 'green', 'fur-free', 'vegan' and 'eco-fur', because it doesn't always mean respect for the environment."

One designer who got a dressing down for setting a bad example is Stella McCartney. Wittingly or not, McCartney is promoting faux leather made of plastic, says British fashion designer Patrick Grant. "Almost certainly Stella is using the very best alternatives [to real leather], but the problem is that all the people that have seen what she’s doing have copied her and polyurethane has taken off as an alternative to leather. But it is bad s**t: the way it’s made and the way it doesn’t biodegrade." Grant has also Tweeted words of wisdom about where the real problem lies (see above).

Truth About Fur Audience Growing

Truth About Fur wants to reach as wide an audience as possible, so we were elated that our blog posts in November were among our most popular ever.

Our senior researcher, Alan Herscovici, discussed everything that society stands to lose if the recent spate of fur retail bans spreads beyond California. "The recent surge in anti-fur campaigning makes me feel angry, but also very sad," he writes. "Angry, because most anti-fur rhetoric is so completely misinformed and malicious. Sad, because the public debate about fur is based on a grotesque caricature of the fur trade that completely ignores the unique knowledge, skills, culture and, yes, values maintained by this remarkable heritage industry."

And Derek Martel of the Fur Institute of Canada interviewed proud Cree trapper Robert Grandjambe, who is also the focus of a new CBC documentary, Fox Chaser: A Winter on the Trapline. “People need to better understand the importance of what trappers do, because I don’t think they get it,” says Grandjambe. “We must educate people to understand that everything the trapper does contributes to a natural and sustainable way of life and the environment, and is crucial for the culture and health of our communities.”

Thank you to all our readers who "Like" and "Share" our posts on social media, and please consider joining our 64,000 followers on Facebook and let us know what you think.

Looney Tunes

People have been saying for years that we should ignore PETA's publicity-grabbing stunts, but the media were all over this one so it's too late. PETA wants an English village called Wool to change its name to Vegan Wool because its current name "promotes hideous animal cruelty". As PETA no doubt anticipated, the village council refused to even discuss this stupid proposal, but heh, PETA got its free column inches!

Equally absurd was a lady guest on the TV show Good Morning Britain who got torn apart by host Piers Morgan. According to this animal lover, guide dogs for the blind are unethical because the dogs haven't given their consent to be used in this way!

The debate over natural fur vs. fake rages on in the media, but with no new arguments being put on the table, it's hard to tell whether our industry is gaining ground. On the upside, the sustainability argument is now front and centre, and fake fur is taking a beating, as in a recent Huffington Post piece, "Faux fur is made of plastic, and it's not helping the environment." On the downside, almost all media reports are using the same cute but unhelpful hook: that both natural and fake fur are bad, so what are we to do? Here's a classic example, from Fashion United: "Fashion's battle with fur: real vs faux".

They call it "balanced reporting", but there are no winners when the message getting out is that neither natural fur nor fake fur is the way to go.

But heh, let's be optimists, like Thomas Salomon, fourth-generation owner of designer brand Yves Salomon. Thomas is a great spokesman for the fur trade as a whole, not just the retail sector, and he is adamant that the cloud now hanging over natural fur has a silver lining. When asked by Hong Kong Tatler whether fur was "a dying industry," he responded, "It’s not a dying industry, but rather it’s a time where it’s modernising itself."

In other fur fashion news, the Korea Herald covered last month's Asia Remix, a contest for young designers working with fur, organised by the International Fur Federation. On hand to spread the word was Kelly Xu, CEO, IFF Asia Region. “Using fake fur damages the Earth, with the waste going to the oceans, affecting the entire ecosystem,” she said. “Fur is natural material which has been used by humans for thousands of years. It is biodegradable, it is sustainable fashion.”

Meanwhile, there's nothing better for a designer brand than some celebrity endorsement, and guess who reaped the windfall last month? When actress Katie Holmes stepped out in Manhattan, she was wearing a snuggly fox-trimmed coat from none other than Yves Salomon. Interestingly, celebrities are in far less of a rush to ditch fur than designer brands like Gucci.

Trapping and Wildlife Management

Urban wildlife has been in the news again, and will be a regular fixture in the future. Even on the other side of the pond there's interest in North America's special problems, with the UK's Guardian featuring Toronto's raccoons. For some residents they are "scrappy heroes" but for others they are "villainous thugs". In case you missed it, "Conrad" the raccoon achieved fame posthumously when he died on a Toronto street in 2015. During the 12 hours it took for city services to pick him up, 'coon fans erected a memorial shrine to him.

Raccoons, of course, are a primary carrier of the rabies virus. A staggering statistic in "The value of modern day trapping" in The Bradford Era is $550 million - the cost of controlling rabies in the US annually. Without trapping, it is estimated this would balloon to $1.5 billion.

Urban coyotes are at it again, this time in Roswell, Georgia. Trapper Tim Smith was called in and soon trapped four. “They’re eating all the small dogs in the neighborhood, rabbits, every once in a while, we’ll get one that wants to come up to kids at the bus stop,” he said.

SEE ALSO: Will urban coyotes change the animal rights debate?

While North Americans argue about the place of trapping in wildlife management, New Zealanders understand. True, their eradication programs target invasive species, such as possums and rabbits, but animal rights opposition is almost unheard of. Here's an inspiring story of one man's efforts to protect a breeding colony of indigenous seabirds from rats, stoats, mice and hedgehogs. "Unfortunately, conservation in New Zealand is all about killing things,'' says conservationist Graeme Loh. "It is grim. I've been involved in the biodiversity part of things for many years, and most of my work has been working out better ways to kill more of the right stuffs at the right time.''

SEE ALSO: New Zealand designer embraces wild rabbit "eco-fur".

Education, of course, is the key, which is why the Timmins Fur Council in Ontario takes its outreach programs to kids and families very seriously. Read "Put down your gadgets kids, learn to love nature" by council member Kaileigh Russell. If the name sounds familiar, that's because the council was co-founded by her grandfather fully 50 years ago.

SEE ALSO: Reasons we trap.

Last but by no means least (especially if you're a Brit yearning to live in the past), learn about a traditional form of wildlife management that's making a comeback: molecatching. "Moleskin: A unique fur once favoured by British high society" is a story of royalty, a pest, and a unique fur that takes 600 pelts to make one coat!

Two fur "bans" that aren't fur bans grabbed the headlines in September. Even if there's just a smell of a possible ban, animal rights advocates always trumpet it to the heavens because it increases pressure on policymakers to pass one if the media and public believe it's a fait accompli.

The Los Angeles city council voted to have legislation drafted that would ban fur retail and manufacturing. The proposal is facing stiff opposition, not just from the fur trade, but that didn't stop animal activists - and some of the media - from announcing a done deal. The Fur Information Council of America and the International Fur Federation are calling this "fake news".

Most of the media, thankfully, realised that a ban is a long way from actually passing into law, have been sceptical about its merits, and have given space to opposing views. "LA should scrap its ban on fur," wrote Will Coggin of the Center for Consumer Freedom in the Washington Examiner. "Pro-fur officials challenge L.A. city council’s vote on fur sales ban," reported Women's Wear Daily.

The National Post gave voice to Nancy Daigneault and Mark Oaten of the International Fur Federation, who wrote: “This is public policy based on lies, flawed studies and false allegations as those proposing the ban have not proactively reached out to the fur industry to learn about the high animal welfare and environmental standards in place. Nor have they learned about sustainability in a meaningful way."

Another fur "ban" which wasn't really a fur ban was at London Fashion Week. The British Fashion Council, which organises the event, opted to play a risky game by announcing that no fur would be shown at this year's event. Of course, animal rights groups and much of the media announced this as a ban (see, for example, this article by Fashion Network), but the Fashion Council insisted there was no ban. It was simply a case of no designers choosing to show fur. So why did they even bother to announce it? Presumably in the hope animal rights activists would stay away.

Meanwhile, animal rights groups continue to pressure designer brands to drop fur. The latest to fold is Burberry, and now the heat is being ramped up on Prada. Note again how activists and the media always refer to these as "bans" when they're nothing of the sort. Burberry (or whoever) has not "banned" fur; it's merely decided to stop using it for now. And almost all of these brands will continue using shearling (sheep fur), not to mention python, crocodile, and other exotic leathers.

As for how the trade will ride out this trend of fur bans (real or imagined), Truth About Fur's blog asks: "After the siege: What is the future of fur?"

Meanwhile, we all know how important social media are to animal activists, so here's an in-depth look at how they're used against the fur trade: "How social media is pushing fur out of fashion".

International Fur Federation News

Last month, the International Fur Federation launched two fashion campaigns, the Natural Wonder campaign and the Fur Now campaign, to highlight the importance of responsible fashion, informed consumer choice, and the sustainability of fur.

Also, Women's Wear Daily ran a feature entitled "Fur: A sustainable, versatile choice" on Chunchen Liu, winner of the REMIX 2018 competition organised by the IFF with the support of Vogue Talents. (Download the whole issue in PDF here.) Having now produced a collection with Saga Furs, Chunchen is already proving herself an informed advocate for fur. "Fur has strong sustainable credentials," she told WWD. "Unlike comparable petroleum-based synthetics made of plastic, natural fur is a completely biodegradable material, which does not further burden nature. Every stage of fur production is sustainable. ..: Also, natural fur lasts for decades if professionally cared for, unlike chemical-based fur that ends up in landfill sites often after a single season. Fur can also be passed down through generations and remodeled and restyled in a variety of ways to keep it modern." We couldn't have said it better ourselves!

Picking on the Small Guy

Animal rights activists will pick on anyone, large or small, but they're never scarier than when they're going after small businesses.

Actress and fur lover Sarah Jessica Parker had hoped for a fun event to mark the opening of her new store in Manhattan, but instead the store was invaded by animal rights bullies chanting, "Fur trade, death trade." Fifty years ago, security would have thrown them headlong out the door, but if you do that today, their lawyers will be all over you.

Someone who can surely relate is Faye Rogers who opened a fur store in England and closed it in September after just four weeks. Business was good and then the protestors turned up, and 1,000 hate messages and threats arrived in four days from around the world. Said Rogers, "These trolls are hiding behind a mask of being vegan and animal-loving just so they can be nasty. They are bored and have nothing to do with their lives."

Meanwhile PETA has decided it wants to close down a New Brunswick company that processes lobster and crab shells into powder that is used in the bio-medical industry and as fertiliser. It sounds like a tremendous sustainable-use initiative, but of course PETA doesn't want us eating lobsters and crabs in the first place. And why not? "Lobsters are intelligent, sensitive people who do not want to be killed," according to a spokeswoman. You read that right, lobsters are "people"!

... and Some Good News

It's great to see that the company largely responsible for propelling coyote pelt prices to record levels is expanding its production. Canada Goose is about more than just coyote-trimmed, down-filled parkas, of course, but we should celebrate that a strong advocate both of fur and sustainable use is doing well. The new manufacturing facility, in Winnipeg, will be its seventh and largest, and create 700 new jobs.

Sadly, last month saw the passing of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. She was far too talented and independent an artist for anyone to ever claim her as their own, but there's no denying she wore fur with style. In later life, her stage performances incorporated a signature move of dropping her full-length mink or chinchilla on the floor to signify she was shifting into high gear. Rest in peace.

Spreading the Word

It's always great to see members of the fur trade using the media to spread our messages.

If you're happy with publicity and have something to say, make yourself available for interviews, like fourth-generation furrier Thomas Salomon who was recently featured in the South China Morning Post. In "Why furrier Yves Salomon dismisses the anti-fur movement that is sweeping fashion", Thomas pulls no punches. "What’s happening right now is just a fashion cycle," he says. "In fact, I call it the hypocrite cycle. It's easy for brands to cut [fur] out when it makes up less than 0.1 per cent of their turnover. Plus half the time these brands don’t have a consistent strategy.”

Another great way to get heard is to submit an op-ed piece, but they're a mixed blessing. With minimal editorial control by the media organisation, op-ed writers can speak freely to the point that they often just end up regurgitating propaganda. So it was a relief when Business of Fashion, after publishing an anti-fur tirade from an animal rights group, gave equal space to International Fur Federation CEO Mark Oaten and Vice-President Americas Nancy Daigneault, in "Fur: A reality check".

Easiest of all is writing letters to the editor, like this impassioned plea from a resident of New Hampshire, "Trapping, like hunting, is a conservation tool".

Rabbit Redux?

Rabbit fur is far more common than you might think, but it almost never makes its way into the collections of luxury brands. Now Jane Avery, from Dunedin, New Zealand, is bucking the trend with her stunning range of garments combining exotic fabrics with wild rabbit. And she's helping protect the environment at the same time, since rabbits are a real pest in her part of the world. Check out our interview: "New Zealand designer embraces wild rabbit 'Eco-Fur'".

Rabbit farming is alive and well too, in Aitkin County, Minnesota. The Nord Lake Rabbitry used to be a mink farm, but now raises rabbits for food and fur, rotating them with crops that benefit from the "phenomenal fertility" of rabbit manure.

On the Trapline

Fox chaser: A winter on the trapline is a new documentary film from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that follows a young Cree trapper's way of life in the northern Alberta wilderness. CBC's story and the official trailer are here, and if you're lucky enough to live in Canada, you can watch the full documentary here.

Much closer to home, Truth About Fur's Alan Herscovici reports on his experience "Spring muskrat trapping in Quebec" with Pierre Canac-Marquis, coordinator of the Fur Institute of Canada’s humane trap research and development program. “It’s a passion,” says Pierre. “It’s certainly not for the money; I’ll be lucky to get four dollars a pelt for these rats. But the farmers are happy we’re here, because muskrats undermine the stream banks with their burrows. That speeds erosion and they lose large strips of farm land along the drainage ditches."

Here are a couple of cautionary tales about what can happen when wildlife are left to their own devices for too long, with no management plan. Nutria are notorious for damaging wetlands, and there are so many on the US west coast now that they pose "a threat to California's environment similar to a wildfire or an earthquake." Meanwhile, Argentina and Chile are hoping to remove 100,000 beavers - originally introduced for their fur - because the North American natives have clear-cut the old-growth forest in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia.

Fur Ban Bandwagon

The bandwagon of fur-ban stories keeps right on rolling, with two Californian cities front and centre. San Francisco's ban on fur sales, set to come into force next year, prompted the writing of "San Francisco bans everything", a tongue-in-cheek piece that would be funny except it's also true!

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, the city council is being asked to consider a fur ban of its own. This prompted another piece about the seemingly endless string of bans in California, "The fur flies in L.A. as city considers ban". If you want to send a message to the council explaining why a ban would be a bad move, ShoppersRights.org makes it incredibly easy.

Feel free to refer the LA council (or anyone else considering a ban) to our new blog post, "Proposals to ban fur sales are anti-ecological".

Odds 'n' Ends

Sightings of "urban coyotes" continue to rise in North American cities, while Montreal launched a hunt for one coyote believed to have attacked three children.

SEE ALSO: Will urban coyotes change the animal rights debate?

According to a survey commissioned by the Montreal SPCA, 72% of Quebecers expect their legislators "to adopt legislative measures and policies designed to ensure the welfare of the province’s animals.” That sounds fine, since the fur trade supports animal welfare too. But if you're looking to start writing letters to the editor, look out for headlines like this one from the Canadian Press: "Study: 70 per cent of Quebecers feel animal rights are an important election issue." Animal rights and animal welfare are not the same - a message we just need to keep repeating.

SEE ALSO: Animal welfare vs. animal rights: An important distinction.

In the battle to win fake-fur fans over to natural fur, we could have a new piece of ammo. Apparently the most widely used plastic, polyethylene, emits methane and ethylene as it breaks down, and both of these are greenhouse gases. We did not know that, and will be following closely!

Our July news roundup focuses on two areas where a little more common sense could solve everyone's problems. When wild furbearer populations grow too large, whether they're invasive or indigenous, common sense suggests we cull them and make use of the fur and meat (if they're tasty). But animal advocates want us to share space even with dangerous wildlife while calling for fur bans.

The Darwin Award for managing invasive wildlife goes to Canmore, Alberta, where a program is under way to control an explosion of rabbits. It's not that the locals don't like rabbits, but some don't like all the hungry cougars, coyotes and bears they're attracting. So far, 1,300 rabbits have been trapped and euthanised, with most going as feed to a wildlife rehab centre. But now everyone's upset: rabbit lovers, obviously, but also taxpayers who are paying $300 per rabbit caught! Plus the program's not working because the rabbits are breeding like, well, rabbits. Duh!

A fashion designer in New Zealand, where invasive rabbits cause extensive environmental harm, has a much better idea. Jane Avery is turning rabbits into fur coats under the label Lapin (French for rabbit). "If you wish for the luxury of fur, then maybe you should be making an eco-conscious choice,” says Avery, who is not so much a fur fan as a lover of her natural environment.

Don't expect rabbits to vanish from Alberta or New Zealand any time soon, but efforts to eradicate invasive species do occasionally succeed. One such case is the American mink in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. Decades after mink were released from fur farms, wildlife conservationists now believe they finally have them under control.

Indigenous wildlife can also present problems, like "urban coyotes". In a classic case of "you can't please everyone", traps were first installed in a park in Cambridge, Ontario, and have now been removed following a campaign against the "cruel" traps by Coyote Watch Canada. Said one confused resident who's afraid of the coyotes, "The city has to do something about it, but not hurting them as well because they have the right to live."

SEE ALSO: Will urban coyotes change the animal rights debate?

Beavers are also expanding their territory, onto the Alaskan tundra. “You just need to look at the map to see how well beavers recolonized the rest of North America after over-trapping," says an expert. "They are now in all the lower 48 states, and Alaska is the last standing – and it’s going to fall.” Given the radical changes beavers can bring to a landscape, the jury is still out on whether this is a good or a bad thing.

SEE ALSO: Abundant furbearers: An environmental success story.

Fur Bans Threatening

Regardless of how some furbearers are expanding their range, calls for fur bans are also spreading.

In the UK, a Parliamentary debate in June considered the possibility of banning fur imports post-Brexit. The government said no, but the anti-fur lobby have kept up a steady flow of stories to the hungry media. Grabbing headlines in July was the spurious argument that fur should be banned because a few retailers have been caught labelling it as fake. The government has rightly said this is not grounds for a ban, but it seems to be wavering, as this BBC report shows.

Also in Europe, Ireland's Green Party will be reviving its bid to have fur farming banned there. This almost happened back in 2009, but got derailed during a period of political turmoil.

Back on this side of the pond, a ban on fur sales is approaching in San Francisco, and the fur industry has threatened legal action if it goes ahead. Animal rights leaders have also announced that New York City is in their cross hairs.

On Our Blog

Last month Truth About Fur interviewed Katie Ball from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Katie says fur is in her blood and it shows! When she's not on the trapline, she's running her own fur fashion company or advocating on behalf of several outdoors associations.

We also ran an overview of the latest annual general meeting of the Fur Institute of Canada. For those not already in the know, the FIC is the country’s leader on humane trap research and furbearer conservation, and is the official trap-testing agency for the federal and provincial/territorial governments.

Odds and Ends

Let's close with some news in brief ...

In 2018, the International Fur Federation and Fur Europe commissioned a study comparing degradation of real and fake fur in a simulated landfill. Now they've released a video summarising the findings.

SEE ALSO: The Great Fur Burial.

In sealing news, a reopened tannery for sealskin in Alaska is having trouble keeping up with demand (pictured above), while on one of the remote Pribilof Islands the annual fur seal hunt was allowed to start three days early because groceries were running out.

Farmed mink production in the US fell slightly in 2017, but the total value of the harvest was up thanks to higher prices. Read the official US Department of Agriculture report and an analysis by Capital Press.

This year's winners of the Yukon Innovation Prize say they want to turn the fur industry upside down. Team Yukon Fur Real plans to buy pelts from local trappers and help artisans create fur products that can be sold to consumers.

Calling sports fans, a fur coat owned and signed by Joe Namath is up for auction! To place your bid, click here. As of August 1, there are zero bids, perhaps because the reserve price is $10,000!

June saw fur very much on the agenda in the UK, where the government was obliged to debate a proposal to ban all fur imports on leaving the EU next year, after receiving a petition with 425,000 signatures. The opposition Labour Party vowed to pass such a ban if given the chance, while its members vied for the headlines with celebrities like Brian May, Judi Dench, Ricky Gervais and Andy Murray. One Labour MP even likened wearing fur to wearing a swastika.

But while anti-fur tirades dominated column inches and air time, the media didn't just roll over. The BBC took a sympathetic look at mink farming in Denmark, and raised the issue now on everyone's mind of our excessive use of plastic, including fake fur. Even the tabloids are condemning fake fur, with the Daily Mail stating, "'Animal-friendly' fashion alternatives could do more harm to the environment than fur and leather-based clothing." (In fairness, though, the Mail is happy to bash anything, including real fur.)

As anticipated, the Conservative government said it has no plans to ban fur imports, but the future is far from secure if Labour wins the next general election, scheduled for 2022.

Food Fascism

In other European news, vegan terrorists are now picking on family butchers. We reported in May how a butcher in England had its windows daubed with paint and got death threats all the way from Australia. Now French butchers are so sick of vegans that they're demanding government protection. Targeting butchers is not just a European thing, though, as this Berkeley, California butcher found out last year.

And on the subject of food fascism, a food lawyer (yes, such a job exists!) says we should follow California's foie gras ban closely. The Supreme Court, no less, has been asked to hear an appeal from producers about a circuit court ruling reinstating the ban. "This is a court case about much more than foie gras," Baylen Linnekin told the Orange County Register. "It concerns the future of beef, poultry, pork, and other foods eaten by nearly every American."

Tough Questions

When animal users are not countering ignorant and often untruthful attacks from animal rightists, we're searching for answers to tough questions. When it comes to knowing your opponent, here's a thought-provoking piece in The New Republic entitled "The truth about the 'vegan lobby'."  "It has long been demonized by conservatives – and even some vegans themselves – but does it really exist?" asks Emily Atkin.

Truth About Fur's senior researcher Alan Herscovici examined "The truth about 'fur free' designer brands". Have they really developed a dislike for fur, or are there other forces at work?

Also on our blog, conservationist and environmental social scientist Paul McCarney asked the tough question of whether anthropomorphism is good or bad for conservation. And on a related note, Roy Graber at WATTAgNet says farmers et al. should "Stop saying animals are our friends." "Often when the food and agriculture industry depicts overly happy visions of livestock and poultry, it reinforces unrealistic expectations," he writes.

Meanwhile, it's easy for animal users who produce food and clothing to forget that medical researchers have been under attack for decades and the problem shows no signs of abating. The Daily Bruin published a series of responses by researchers to activists, defending the use of animals in studies. Said one, "It is difficult to have a conversation with people who believe that human and animal lives should be weighed equally."

If you ever have to argue why we don't need to treat animals quite as well as humans and you're not sure what to say, Juan Carlos Marvizon, Ph.D. provides this scientific explanation in Speaking of Research.

Trapping News

Ontarians have been hogging the trapping headlines of late, in a nice way.

On Truth About Fur's blog, Ontario trapper Jim Gibb described how to stay busy with wild fur prices so depressed, in "Skunk under your deck? Call a certified trapper".

"Irrepressible" Ontario trapper and designer Katie Ball was interviewed by the International Fur Federation. She's a busy beaver with a résumé that includes the Northwestern Fur Trappers Association, the Ontario Fur Managers Federation, and the Northwestern Ontario Sportsmen's Alliance. On top of all that, she runs a fur design and manufacturing business, Silver Cedar Studio.

And if you want to trap in Ontario but come from out-of-state – or in this case a whole different country – be sure to follow local regulations. These Minnesota trappers were fined $6,000 for trapping violations in Ontario.

In other trapping news, the Northwest Territories are having trouble with too many beavers, so the government has raised the bounty from $50 last year to $100. The offer ended June 10, so plan for 2019. This is called a marketing incentive, not a cull, and trappers must show evidence that the meat or pelt are being used.

Payback

It's unfortunate, of course, that so many animal activists now behave so badly, but the "good" news is that law enforcement and society at large are not giving them a free ride.

In Utah, activists have been charged by the FBI for stealing piglets from a farm. This activist has been charged with breaking into five Ontario mink farms. And in Australia, these ones have been charged with animal cruelty for allegedly injuring and killing several hens after a break-in.

In Florida, an angry sheriff brought attention to the old problem of activists releasing undercover videos of alleged animal cruelty to the media rather than to law enforcement, in this case enabling the perpetrators to flee the state. As always we ask ourselves, do they really want to protect animals or simply grab media attention?

Last but not least, it's tempting to laugh at the fate of these Direct Action Everywhere protesters who crashed a BBQ challenge in San Francisco, only to be booed, heckled and taunted with meat by the participants. What did they expect? And if you think that's nuts, check out the video of the lady protesting "cruel" conditions on chicken farms by lying in a pile of poop – in California, of course!

It's time for our May news roundup and we are going to start by talking footwear – vegan footwear to be exact. According to Footwear News, vegan footwear is on the rise due to demand from millennials, and improvements in material quality. No matter how much the quality of plastic shoes improves, they are still made from plastic, which is made from petroleum and never fully biodegrades. There are some organic alternatives making it to market, such as pineapple leather, but we still don't know whether the production processes used to create this material are safe and sustainable.

And sustainability is a very important topic these days, in particular within the fashion industry. Unfortunately designers like Stella McCartney, who consider themselves spokespeople for sustainability, still don't seem to understand the definition of the word. This is an interesting article on whether real or faux fur is better for the planet, this article highlights the problems with faux fur, and this one debates whether feathers are more or less ethical than fur (pictured).

We think feathers are less ethical, because fur is often used as winter clothing, whereas feathers are almost exclusively used as decoration on garments. (Down stuffing is the obvious exception.) If you are going to use animals for clothing, make sure it is for a good reason, right? That said, we'll take feathers as decoration any day over plastic beads.

Vegans Attack British Butcher

Things are getting heated on the animal rights front, especially for a family butcher who has come under attack from vegan animal rights activists in the UK. Activists claim to be compassionate, but we aren't sure how graffiti and death threats towards a small, independent butcher can be considered so.

This article calls out pipeline protesters who align themselves with Greenpeace, without considering the harm that the organisation has done to the Inuit through its anti-sealing campaigns.

A topic that is close to our hearts has made a lot of headlines recently: animal rights vs. animal welfare. The headlines that caught our eye were these: "How consumers confuse animal rights with animal welfare" and "Proposed pet crackdown confused animal welfare with animal rights". Meanwhile this piece explores the concept of conservation and how it has nothing to do with animal rights, and this one explains that consumers care about animal welfare, but they still want to eat meat and wear leather.

Coyotes are back in the headlines for attacking children and being the subject of poorly thought-through "management plans". On the blog, we looked at how the urbanisation of predators, and in particular coyotes (pictured), may change city dwellers' thoughts on trapping. And while we are talking about animals not being welcome, it's worth reading these pieces about nutria populations skyrocketing in California, and Canadian beavers destroying South America.

But let's forget about vegan footwear and criminal activists and end this week's roundup with some links we loved:

This author believes grass-fed beef is probably the most vegan food in the supermarket.

Demand for fur and leather in the US is forecast to reach $13 billion by 2022. Take that, activists!

Conservationist Finn, a yellow Labrador, is helping save penguins by sniffing out rabbits (pictured).

On our blog, From Donald Duck to Zootopia: 70 years of cartoon fur.

Lynx are more conversational than we thought.

Fur has been making the headlines more often than usual, and we are very happy to see the media questioning the use of faux fur. While the media aren't exactly singing praise for real fur, we are starting to see a consistent message that faux fur may not be a viable substitute for the real thing, especially since they are finding plastic microfibre pollution in water, caused in part by our use of synthetic fabrics. Of course us fur folk know this and it's part of our campaigning, but the fact that the media are regularly mentioning this is certainly positive for the trade.

Check out articles by Drapers, ABC, and Refinery 29. Not all of these articles are pro fur, but at least people are beginning to understand the damage caused by fake fur. Unfortunately this piece by Forbes failed to call out the companies who are dropping real fur in the name of sustainability, when we all know that real fur is so much more sustainable than the alternative.

The team at Truth About Fur also did a piece about how a fur could be the most sustainable material in your closet, and if you want some clarification on how microfibres (from materials such as faux fur) pollute our oceans, then this video does a great job explaining it. Since we are on the topic of microfibre pollution, it’s worth checking out this BBC video about plastic pollution (pictured), or this podcast from CBC’s The Current where they discuss the issue in depth.

Now that you are convinced that real fur is far superior to faux fur, are you considering buying one? Our guide to choosing the right fur for you will give you a hand with your shopping. But be careful – there have been some isolated cases of real fur being labeled as fake. The fur industry’s stance on this matter is in agreement with animal rights activists (that’s a first): labelling needs to be accurate. Everyone has the right to know what they are buying. If you do end up getting yourself a beautiful new fur coat, here are some great tips on caring for it.

Animal Activists Bothering Everyone

While they are still very much bent on ending the fur trade, animal rights activists have also been busy on other projects, and any fashion brand that thinks dropping fur will get them off its back should think again. For example, they want to stop the use of skins like crocodile and snake, leather, wool, and silk. (Prince Charles will certainly have an issue with that, since he's recently been promoting the benefits of wool.) Now PETA has luxury conglomerate LVMH in its cross hairs, pressuring it to stop using exotic skins.

Aside from fashion companies, the targets for bothersome activists seem to be endless. They're against dog-sledding, of course, and this article about PETA's campaign against the Iditarod is an interesting (and frustrating) read. They're trying to convince us to eat vegan ice cream, covering themselves in manure, and trying to get monkeys intellectual property rights. They're also feeling terribly sorry for themselves, so much so that they've given a name to the anxiety linked to being vegan – Vystopia.

Extortion in Toronto

It’s normal to be frustrated with activists trying to restrict our freedom of choice and force us into faux fur, but there is one story in particular that has really bothered us. You may have heard of the Toronto restaurant that reacted to vegan protesters by butchering and eating a deer leg in the restaurant’s front window. When the story hit the headlines across North America, we thought the activists would move on to the next unsuspecting small business. But instead, they told the restaurant owner that they would only be willing to cease protesting if he put a vegan slogan in the front window. The restaurant owner refused and referred to the threat as extortion – which we agree with. On the upside, the restaurant continues to get tons of free press as this saga continues.

A few other articles that caught our eye last month were this piece about the seal hunt, and some great trapper profiles, from Kansas and Labrador. We also found this very good read on how the declining numbers of hunters is threatening conservation (pictured). We certainly agree that it is time to start changing the way we talk about hunting, and trapping too.

Let’s end this month’s roundup with an update on what the animals have been up to:

The news is not good for caribou, as their numbers are declining.

Oregon is considering what to do with its growing sea lion population, which is having an impact on fish populations.

Belugas can communicate, and it's a lot more sophisticated than we thought.

Next time you check into a motel, make sure the occupant next door isn’t an alligator.

No one intelligent will be surprised to learn that this deer vasectomy program is a waste of money.

This coyote's tuition fees are really quite high.

Beware of moody geese who have just been through a breakup.

Cows and chicken duke it out to determine which should (and shouldn't) be eaten.