You had a club and bashed the animal's head. It's cruel, it's horrible. People think it's romantic, but it's not. If people who wear fur coats ever saw their dog in a trap like that, they'd never wear fur again. —Raven Wilson, Native Canadian and former trapper

The Canadian fur industry has launched an aggressive marketing campaign to convince the public that the fur industry is fundamental to the cultural and economic survival of native peoples. They have based this campaign upon the deliberate misinforming of the public, and the manipulation of good intentions. In their campaign, industry advocates have attempted to blur the lines between native subsistence living and a polluting, wasteful, commercial industry. In the end, it is taxpayers - the overwhelming majority of whom are opposed to the slaughter of animals for fur - who are forced to foot the bill for this exploitive propaganda. Here are a few of the myths being perpetuated by the fur industry - as well as the true facts.

Fur Industry Myth: Without the success of the commercial fur trade, natives will lose their unique "social, spiritual, and cultural relationship with the land and its resources." (Old Massett Fur Impacts Report)

Fact: One of the most fundamental values of many native communities is respect for animals and a reverence for all life. As a result, true subsistence lifestyles involve the full utilization of any animal killed. Commercial decimation of animal populations for frivolous fashion, and the wasteful discarding of animal carcasses, is in direct opposition to these traditional value systems.

In reality, the commercial fur trade was brought to Canada by her European conquerors, and used by them to help bring her native people in subjection. Hudson's Bay Governor George Simpson wrote in 1822, "I am convinced they (native people) must be ruled with a rod of iron to bring and keep them in a proper state of subordination, and the most certain way to effect this is by letting them feel their dependence on us…" In the 1920's, we find a fur trader saying: "the sooner the caribou are gone the better, for the more foodstuffs can be imported and the natives will be forced to trap and become fur producers or starve."

Fur Industry Myth: "The Fur Trade supports the cultures and livelihoods of tens of thousands of rural and aboriginal people in North America". (Fur Council of Canada)

Fact: According to data from Statistics Canada and the Fur Institute of Canada, the average Canadian trapper made about $225 from trapping in 1998-9.1 And there is strong evidence to suggest most native trappers make less than the average.

Only 5% of Canada's aboriginal population is involved with the fur trade - as trappers, the lowest income earning position in the fur industry. Approximately 1% of the income generated by the fur industry ($800 million yearly) is paid to aboriginal trappers. It is important to note that the most of the money in the fur trade is earned in the manufacturing and retail sectors, and native peoples have virtually no stake in these areas.

The fur industry has consistently and deliberately opposed native initiatives to label native trapped furs. The reason for this is simple: native trapped furs account for only 3% of the pelts that are sold in North America. If people were allowed to buy only native trapped furs, the industry would collapse.

The fur trade is the most insidious source of prejudice against native peoples. The Fur Institute of Canada and the government drag token Indians all over Europe to get support for the white trapping and fashion and fur industry as if natives were some sort of noble gods. In contrast, back at home, they cut education programs that could get natives out of subsistence jobs like fur trapping. —Paul Hollingsworth, founder, Native/Animal Brotherhood

Fur Industry Myth: "The fur trade provides important income for many aboriginal people." (Fur Council of Canada)

Fact: Recreational, part-time hunters do just as much trapping as native trappers. In fact, according to Statistics Canada research, the recreational trappers usually earn more money from trapping than natives. The Standing Committee in Aboriginal Affairs recognizes that "trappers, native and non-native alike, trap by choice and not need."

References:

1. Statistics Canada, value of pelts sold
2. Fur Council of Canada, number of trappers