Victims of Fashion: Trapping

Get a feel for fur: Slam your fingers in a car door.
—Anonymous (on the use of steel traps to capture fur-bearing animals)

Of the approximately 2-million animals officially reported killed each year by the Canadian fur industry, about half are trapped. Muskrat, beaver and marten make up the bulk of animals caught in the wild, with other targeted species including raccoons, coyotes, foxes, fishers, otters, lynx, bobcats and minks.

There are many Canadians who are opposed to the wearing of fur for fashion. Some of them have seen the horrible images of animal suffering in leg-hold and other traps. Others know about the environmental destruction caused by these non-selective killing devices.

It is rather ironic, then, that the fur industry uses these taxpayers' dollars to wage expensive public relations campaigns in a vain attempt to disguise the bloody origins of their product. Please take a few minutes to find out the true facts of fur.

Fur industry myth: "Trapping is ethical." (Trappers Association of Nova Scotia)

Fact: Trapping is a brutal, sadistic way of holding injured and terrified animals captive, often in extreme temperatures, with no food, water or shelter, until the trapper eventually decides to return to kill them.

For the past forty years in Canada, three main traps have been used: the steel-jawed leg-hold trap, the conibear trap, and snares. Today, the leg-hold trap remains the most widely used. This simple but barbaric device has been banned in 63 countries, as well as in Florida, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Arizona. When an animal steps on the leg-hold trap spring, the trap's jaws slam on the animal's limb. Dr. Robert Cape states, "…the captured animal will struggle to get loose, mutilating the foot and causing deep, painful lacerations…the animal will attempt escape by chewing or twisting off the trapped extremity...10 to 12 hours after being captured, the animal is still in pain." After a prolonged time, he explains, trapped animals "will suffer from exhaustion, since they expend such a great amount of energy in attempting to escape…with exhaustion, the animal suffers from exposure, frostbite, shock, and eventually death." In 1975, it was reported at a US Congressional hearing that one Alaskan lynx remained trapped for six weeks while members of its family brought it food to sustain its life. It is estimated that one in four animals actually chew off their own limbs to escape the agony of the trap. These animals go on to die of gangrene or other secondary infections.

Conventional leg-hold traps can be used today on foxes, minks and wolverines in Canada. Cosmetically altered versions of the leg-hold trap, including the "padded trap", the "laminated" trap, and the "offset" trap can be used on bobcat, lynx, wolf, coyote, fox, beaver, muskrat, mink, and otter.

Water-set or "drowning" traps are used to kill a variety of wild animals, including minks, beavers and muskrats. Caught beneath the surface of the water in these barbaric devices, it can take these animals up to 20 agonizing minutes to drown.

Fur industry myth: "This Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards, which is a giant step forward, establishes humane trapping standards." (Fur Institute of Canada)

Fact: Several years ago, the European Union passed a progressive resolution to ban the use of leg-hold traps in all its member countries, as well as the import of furs coming from any country still using the leg-hold trap. Canada, determined to continue using leg-hold traps, led the charge to undermine this import ban, by threatening the European Union with severe economic punishment and challenges under GATT and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Finally, Canada convinced the European Union to exempt Canada from their fur ban. They proposed an International Agreement, and misled the EU into believing that this agreement would mean better welfare for trapped animals all around, and would lead to the eventual banning of the leg-hold trap. In reality, this "agreement" puts a seal of approval on cruel traps.

The new agreement is a deliberate attempt on the part of the Canadian fur industry to deceive the Canadian and international public. The agreement still allows for the same traps that have been used for 40 years in Canada, including the conventional leg-hold trap, to be used in or near water sources. 60% of the animals that are killed in Canada for their fur are semi-aquatic animals such as beavers and muskrats, and the new agreeement changes nothing for these animals. The conventional steel-jawed leghold trap may still be used anywhere for minks, foxes, and wolverines. Conventional steel-jawed leg-hold traps, with cosmetic alterations, can be used on bobcats, lynxes, wolves, coyotes, foxes, beavers, muskrats, minks, and otters.

Fur industry myth: "The Fur Institute of Canada initiated a comprehensive research and development program to ensure that Canadian trapping methods are as humane as current technology allows." (Fur Institute of Canada)

Fact: Despite the millions of dollars of taxpayers' money used to develop the so-called "humane trap", the leg-hold trap (banned in 63 countries) remains the predominent trapping system in Canada. Attempts by the Canadian government to develop a "humane" trap are nothing more than an expensive public relations tool. Models that have been developed include three "variations" of the steel-jawed leghold trap. These leg-hold traps are exactly the same as the conventional trap, except for some minor cosmetic changes. The "padded" trap lines the steel jaws with a very thin layer of nylon. This new trap would be similar to slamming you fingers in a car door while wearing a thin glove - it changes nothing. The "laminated" trap simply increases the width of the steel jaws, by a few milimeters, supposedly to disperse the point of impact of the trap. The other "modified" trap is the "offset" trap, which provides a tiny gap (3/16 of an inch) between the steel jaws of the trap. Obviously this does nothing to change the pain of having a powerful steel jaw slam shut on an frightened animal's paw.

This quote from the Canadian government makes their intentions clear... "Canada succeeded in persuading the European Union to defer a regulation prohibiting the importation of furs....from countries that continue to use leg-hold traps…Such a ban would be devastating..." Obviously, the Canadian government has never had any intention of improving anything. The cosmetic changes that they have made are nothing more than an exercise in deception. A leg-hold trap is a leg-hold trap, and the animals continue to suffer for vanity.

Fur industry myth: "Worldwide, the fur industry is an excellent example of an industry based on sustainable use." (Fur Council of Canada)

Fact: The history of the global fur trade, past and present, is evidence that no animal, no matter how abundant, is immune to possible extinction should its pelt become valuable to the fur trade. Animals whose populations numbered in the millions, and whose ranges extended over entire continents, have been reduced to near extinction within the space of a few decades, as demonstrated by the trade in the skins of spotted cats. For those animals unfortunate enough to be naturally rare in the wold for ecological or geographic reasons - the Falkland Island Fox and the North American Sea Mink, for example - total extermination came easily and quickly when their pelts were in demand by the fur trade. In Canada, the greed and shortsightedness of the fur industry led to the endangerment or extinction of the Sea Otter, the Sea Mink, the Newfoundland Marten, the Wolverine, and the Wood Bison.

Fur industry myth: "All the furs used by the trade are abundant." (Fur Council of Canada)

Fact: According to the prices listed by the Fur Harvesters Auction Inc., the animals commanding the highest pelt prices at present are lynxes, bobcats, coyotes, wolverines, and wolves (www.furharvesters.com/feb02.html). These animals exist in nature in very low numbers in Canada, and some of their populations are endangered. In areas where these animals are endangered, trapping is cited as a major cause. The following is an excerpt from a Sierra Club of Canada press release:

The range of the Eastern Canadian Wolf is southern Quebec, Ontario, and eastern Manitoba. These are the last naturally occurring Red Wolf related species in North America. The Red Wolf is so endangered that their populations are estimated to be anywhere from just 200 to a couple of thousand in all of Canada (Dr. John Theberge, 1998). In Canada, where there is no federal endangered species legislation, wolves are allowed to be hunted, trapped, and poisoned year round, with no bag limits. Further, saw tooth leg hold traps and strangling snares, outlawed in 17 states of the United States and western Europe, are still legal in Canada. In Algonquin Park, Ontario, the population is declining by 5% or more annually and headed for certain extinction if a total ban on hunting and trapping is not imposed around the 37 townships surrounding the park.

Fur industry myth: "Beavers are as abundant as when Europeans first arrived in Canada." (Fur Council of Canada)

Fact: It is disgusting that the Fur Council would attempt to cover up the fur industry's role in decimating the Canadian beaver population. The reality is that by the mid-19th century the beaver had almost been trapped into extinction. When the demand for beaver pelts was at its highest, 200,000 pelts per year were being shipped to Europe. Fortunately for Canadians - and the beaver - fashions changed and eventually beaver skins fell out of fashion.

In the 1980s it was determined that the current beaver population was stable. Records continue to be kept of its trapping and export, in order to prevent illegal trade and to ensure it does not become endangered again.

Finally, in the words of the Fur Institute of Canada, "Comprehensive and accurate statistics (on animal populations) were not kept 200 years ago, as they are now." So just how the Fur Council of Canada can compare populations is a mystery to us.

Fur industry myth: "Fur…is warmer than any synthetic product." (Fur Harvesters Auction Inc.)

Fact: If fur were warmer than any synthetic product, it is doubtful that arctic explorers would always appear in gortex, thinsulate, and a myriad of other synthetic fibers that keep people perfectly warm in temperatures as low as -100 degrees celcius. There is no need, whatsoever, for any person to choose fur over a synthetic product for warmth. Moreover, the fur industry markets their product to wealthy people in urban ceters, where warmth is generally not the primary issue in choosing outerwear. The fact is, fur is not marketed for warmth, but rather for "luxury" and "glamour". And the reality is, there is nothing "luxurious" or "glamourous" about a skin that has been ripped off of the back of an animal who did not want to die.

References:
1. www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/est/me3/apr/ptb/dev_e.html - Indian and Northern Affairs Canada