Source: Rauchwarenhandbuch, Germany

Species trapped for fur

Species farmed for fur

Countries that have banned the leghold trap

19 Countries have banned all traps, including the leghold trap: Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Burkina Faso

Source: Facts About Furs, EU Council Regulation No. 3254/91

The Fur Trade

Structure

The fur trade is a multi-billion dollar worldwide industry. The total retail sales of the largest consumer country, the United States, were $1.25 billion in 1996. Of this, 57%, or $720 million, was actual sales of fur, the rest was income on services and accessories.

From animal to coat several sectors of the fur industry are involved. The breeder or the trapper kills and skins the animals. Through a dealer or co-operation the skins are sold at auctions. The main fur auctions are at New York, Seattle, Toronto, Helsinki, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg. The buyers are dealers or larger manufacturers who buy the skins and stitch them into coats or plates. Dressed skins and coats are mostly traded through fur fairs around the world, e.g. Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Montreal. The furrier or department store retailer then sells the coats to the public. There are about 1,350 retail furriers in the United States and a number of department stores, which usually lease their space to larger fur retail companies.

Trapping

Wild animals are mostly caught with traps and snares (10%). Most used are the leghold trap and the conibear trap (named after its inventor, Frank Conibear). Leghold traps were used in earlier centuries to keep poachers from English nobleman's property and were called "man traps". When the Europeans came to North America, they introduced the smaller version to catch fur bearing animals. It has been used ever since.

Around twenty target species of animal are commonly trapped, with Raccoon, Muskrat, Wild Mink and Red Fox being the most popular. Commercial trapping mainly takes place in the United States, Canada and Russia with some smaller numbers of animals caught in countries such as Argentina, New Zealand and Denmark (Greenland). Trapping takes place in winter, when the animals fur is at its thickest. Most animals trapped are nocturnal. Semi-aquatic animals like mink and beaver are usually caught in so called "drowning sets" that pull the animal under water. Gruesome tests have shown that it may take as long as 18 minutes for a beaver to drown.

Many countries use cages, traps or snares for pest control purposes, e.g., Holland annually catches around 400,000 muskrats, in order to protect its dikes. The muskrat is a non-native species which was released from European farms by the fur trade in the 1920's after breeding programs failed. In order to avoid a commercial trapping industry, which would want to maintain a large population, the sale of muskrat pelt is not allowed in the Netherlands.

Leghold Trap
The animal is intended to step on the trigger of this trap, after which two metal jaws bang forcefully shut around its leg. Often the jammed leg is immediately seriously injured. A strong spring ensures that the animal cannot escape. In its fear and anxiety it tries to disengage itself forcibly causing more injury and pain. Animals in traps are often found to have broken their teeth after biting on the metal of the trap in an effort to escape. It also often happens that they pull, twist and gnaw at their leg until it gets torn off. While one leg remains in the trap, the animal flees on three legs to a likely, slow and painful death by infection. In the United States 59% of all traps are legholds. This trap is used for most species, but more to trap the larger (land)mammals. The Leghold trap is generally considered a very cruel method of catching animals. That is why its use is prohibited in over 60 countries, including the European Union.

Trash
Although traps and snares are set in order to catch certain species, often they make unintended catches such as dogs, cats, sheep, birds and even toddlers have been injured by these indiscriminate traps. The animals, usually badly injured, are thrown away and known in the industry jargon as "trash". Because of the indiscriminate nature of these catching methods the traps are also a danger to those animals which are already threatened with extinction. The number of "undesired catches", can be extremely high, adding to the tremendous suffering of numerous animals that goes into the making of just one coat.

Killing
When an animal cannot get away from its trap or snare, it has to wait for its executioner. Being exposed to broad daylight out in the open is an extreme torture for these mostly nocturnal animals. If the animal has not died of exposure to the freezing cold or been eaten by a predator, the following methods to kill trapped animals are recommended at a United States trapper's training course:

1. Break the neck of the animal by putting a stick over it, stand on it and then heave the body high up.
2. Stun or choke it. Beat it on the head with a shovel right where the head meets the neck. After this, stand on the neck while resting your weight in the place where the heart is: this especially works well with foxes.
3. Cudgel it. This is the commonest killing-method. The animal gets several blows on the head with a hammer, shovel or any convenient tool.
4. Drowning is recommended for muskrat, beaver, raccoon and also for skunk.
5. A .22 riffle can be use for most animals, except for the muskrat(...).

Alternative Traps
After decades of protests, legal restrictions, and the threat of a European import ban, the trapping industry was forced to look into alternatives for the leghold trap. Most focus has been on the so called "padded" leghold trap, which has rubber lining on its steel jaws. Tests however show that this device still causes severe injuries and maintains many of the negatives such as indiscriminate trapping. Cage traps are used by humane societies to catch pets for their own protection. Using this device for wild animals is not necessarily a good alternative. Wild animals often try to bite their way out, breaking their teeth. The Canadian Government was the initiator of a process at the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) in trying to certify certain traps as humane. The ISO removed the word "humane" from the title and after certain leghold traps and even drowning (illegal in many countries) were included in the standard, the whole exercise has lost its impetus and certainly its credibility.

Indigenous People
One of the fur trade's most trumpeted arguments in support of its cruel practice is that the livelihood of native people of the north is dependent on it. Indigenous Canadians were flown over to Europe by the fur trade to testify in the European Parliament against proposed animal welfare legislation. Other native people are not very happy making the survival of their culture dependent on the whims of the fashion industry.

Most damaging to the income of all trappers has been the expansion of fur farming. 80% of all fur now comes from farms. Most money that is still made in the fur trade ends up in the pockets of the dealers and retailers at the end of the chain. Those are typically not the native people. In the U.S., where much of the trapping takes place, very few native people are involved in trapping and they are definitely not dependent on trapping for their livelihood. The average income of trappers even in peak years is not more than a few hundred dollars. No one can claim to make a living off such an amount. Trapping is also seasonal and takes place during 2 months in winter. Those who spend that time trapping, have another source of income during the remaining 10 months. The truth is that most trappers trap animals for fun and make a little bit of money on the side.

Seals
Many people think that since the European Union banned the import of baby seal fur in 1983 ( Council Directive 83/129/EEC), and Canada banned the killing of the younger seals, the trade has stopped. Nothing is further from the truth. In 1996 268,921 seals were killed off the coast of Canada. 101 sealers were charged with selling more than 25,000 protected whitecoat harp and blue back hooded seal pups. The Canadian government paid 1.4 million Canadian dollars in subsidies to sealers in support of the continued massacres. The only real economic market is in Asia where seal penises (testicles included) are sold for $26 a piece as an aphrodisiac in the sex trade. (See the IFAW Seals page at http://seals.ifaw.org/seals.) In Norway the seal hunt accounts for up to 20,000 seals each year, while in Russia 30,000 harp seals are slaughtered in the White Sea, and Namibia allows an annual kill of 50,000. Seal fur coats from Greenland can still be found in Copenhagen's fur shops.

Farming

In 1878, the first Silver foxes were commercially bred on Prince Edward Island, Canada. It would take another 40 years before fur farming would spread to other parts of the world, particularly the Scandinavian countries. Using research and primitive experiments breeders have succeeded in creating over 30 colours of mink fur. Mink (90%) and foxes are the main species bred on fur farms. Other animals like Chinchilla, Nutria (Coypu), Sable, Lynx, Raccoon dog, and ferret are commercially bred in small numbers. Fur farms are situated in the colder climates of Scandinavia, Western Europe, Russia, North America, China, Korea and Japan.

Mink farms look pretty much the same everywhere in the world. They are long rows of cages under an open shed. Each farm has several of those sheds. Small farms will have a maximum of 100 animals, while the largest in Scandinavia has over 100,000 animals. The cages, flooring included, are made of wire mesh, which makes it difficult for the animals to stand on them, especially for the younger animals. Almost everywhere the standard measures are 70 centimeters long, 20 to 30 cm wide and 40 cm high. Nesting boxes are fitted onto the cages and there is drinking water in a tiny bowl fitted on each cage. In the winter an 'anti-freeze' solution might be added to the water to try to prevent it from turning to ice. The food consists of a mash of meat and fish offal and flour. In some cases this stuff is mixed with carcasses of mink, foxes or other animals that have died prematurely. In Canada, Finland and Russia the meat of seals is fed to the animals on fur farms. In May the pups are born. Five per nest on average. After seven months their life is over. They are gassed (often with car exhaust fumes), or die through neck breaking or injection.

The animal welfare problems connected to fur farming are significant. Mink are very agile creatures, very much like ferrets, but also very undomesticated. They love running, swimming, playing, climbing and they are very inquisitive. In captivity their options to exercise natural behaviour are totally frustrated, resulting in abnormal physical and psychological conditions. According to animal behaviour scientists, certain social patterns of behaviour of domesticated farm animals can remain unchanged for a period of over 5,000 years.

Other Animals

Not all animals used for fur have been trapped or farmed. A relatively small number of fur coats are made from animals like goat, calf, foal, lamb, kangaroo, seal, rabbit and even house cats and dogs. Being small in number, one particular species stands out. The Karakul lamb from Afghanistan and South West Africa are killed and skinned right after birth in order to maintain the fine curly structure of the fur. Even more prized are the so called Breitzwanz or broadtail lambs, who are born prematurely, often induced by the 'shepherd'. This fetus fur has greater economical value than the usual persian lamb fur due to its light structure.

Retail

Every year the fur industry claims that 'fur is back'. Throughout the years this wishful thinking has remained just that. Worldwide fur sales were highest in 1987 and have dropped dramatically since, only to stabilize in the last 3-4 years. Hundreds of thousands of people in many countries have decided not to buy a fur coat. Fur retail sales in the United States were $1.8 billion in 1987 and have been around $1.2 billion in recent years. It is important to realize that when retail sales figures are given by the fur industry, less than 60% amounts to actual sales of fur. More than 40% of the income is from service, storage etc. There is a trend, in particular in the last year, to make fur more acceptable again. It is important that animal protection organisations and activists remain vigilant. What was cruel and unnecessary during the height of anti-fur campaigning in the late eighties is still cruel and unnecessary now.

Fashion

A number of fashion designers have committed themselves against fur and many models have joined the ranks. The long lasting campaign of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has brought many celebrities to make a stand for animals. Fake or faux fur has obtained a secure place in the fashion scene and many fashion magazines have chosen not to promote animal fur again.

Fur Trim

90% of fur from foxes that are killed on fur farms is not used as coats but as fur trim. Most of the trapped Marten in the US goes the same way. It has become so cheap that it has replaced the artificial article. This indicates partly how the fur trade has managed to survive the dramatic drop in sales of fur coats. Many people are not aware that the fur collar, boot trim or glove linings are made of real fur which is obtained through the same atrocious process as fur coats. Sales people in their ignorance often claim that the fur must be fake if it is that cheap. One has to make absolutely sure however before buying. See "Real or Fake?".