It is difficult for a non-Canadian to fully appreciate the role the fur trade has played in Canada’s history and development, and its subsequently romantic impression on so many Canadians. There would not be a Canada as we know it but for the profits made from furs before various Europeans, mostly French and English, established communities in lands that were already occupied by First Nations people, whose ancestors arrived thousands of years earlier. During this period of colonization, fur was the main commodity traded by First Nations people and European settlers.
I oversimplify a complex history, but the point to be made is that, through it all, there was a relentless movement of furs from the Canadian wilds to other nations. Ever since French explorer Jacques Cartier first traded trinkets for animal skins with the First Nations of Labrador in 1534, to the present, there has been a movement of millions of skins from fur-bearing mammals and, now largely forgotten, the feathered skins of countless birds. While the bird skin trade petered out by the early 20th century, trade in furs continues until now.
And, the fur trade continues against a background of tales, paintings, poems, colorful place names, countless factual and fictional narratives, myths and legends, and lore assiduously taught to children, certainly of my generation, who attended school in the 1950s. Samuel de Champlain started North America’s first fur trading event in what is now Quebec in 1608. The Hudson’s Bay Company received its charter in 1670. Those were dates as important to a young Canadian facing a history test in the primary grades when I was one of them as knowing the start of the American revolution was to my American counterparts.
That was then. While Canada didn’t have a civil war, a revolutionary war, or wars colonists waged against the original inhabitants, the French and English settlers in Canada warred against each other and against nature, hewing giant trees to be used as masts for the British Royal Navy and sending beaver skins to be made into the fashionable top hats of 18th and 19th century English gents. This country with vast wilderness and cold winters was inhabited with an unimaginable wealth in mammals who grow thick fur each winter – ermine, mink, otter, fox, wolf, lynx, marten, muskrat, fisher, wolverine – all sources of vast fortunes to the degree that their skins could be monetized. Fashions and needs might change, but profit was always to be made.
The fur industry has long passed its peak of profitability and economic domination. And, in 2020, the industry, always quick to put on a good front, can no longer pretend it is a viable commercial enterprise. COVID-19 has dealt a severe blow. Our continent is back down to the number of fur sale events it held in 1608 – one, in North Bay, Ontario, and the results, from the industry’s perspective, was dismal. The pandemic kept all but local buyers away, and ironically it is the abuse of animals that generated that very disease. COVID-19 has even been found in farmed mink.
To quote fur market expert, Serge Lariviére, “Uncertainty kills luxury, and fur is a luxury item. When the economy struggles and people lose their jobs, their energy goes into ‘survival mode’ and basic needs are taken care of first and foremost.” Yes, a luxury, and one that depends on killing wildlife in ways that are often barbarically cruel or caging animals wild by nature until they, too, are killed.
It is not just the coronavirus that makes us reassess what we do, but a broad suite of problems facing the natural world, from raging infernos and increasing storms of fiercely dangerous, and expensive, magnitude, to eroding coastlines, crumbling infrastructure, deadly flooding, and more.
In reaction, there is a vast, international reassessment of our priorities, mostly but not exclusively driven by young people whose future is so imperiled by the “business as usual” mindset of older generations. And, among the results that cheer me in these times of stress and uncertainty is the movement away from exploitation, a reassessment of our relationship with “others” who are not human but who are worthy of protection, respect, and life.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that last year was the worst on record for the American fur industry, with nearly a fifty percent decline in value of fur clothing imported from the U.S. compared to the previous year, which was also low. Fur auctions everywhere are seeing furs accumulating unsold, while some communities enact bans against selling fur products altogether. There may be more to worry about than to celebrate if you oppose animal abuse, but we are seeing victories unheard of back when I was a child being taught that killing animals and selling their skins was somehow a noble activity and source of pride. History is always the past. Canada and the world must move into a saner, more compassionate, more sustainable – and ultimately more livable – future.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry
