The recent news that Canada Goose would stop trimming the hoods of its performance parkas with coyote fur by the end of 2022 disappointed and angered many trappers and others in the fur trade. But anyone who cares about nature and democracy should be worried too. Here’s why.

First, despite the rhetoric of animal activists and the chatter of some media pundits, it’s clear that the company’s decision to retreat from fur was not driven by consumer trends or evolving societal values. Canada Goose has offered parkas with and without fur trim for years, but thousands of young people continue to choose the iconic coyote ruff – as you can see on the streets of Montreal, Toronto, New York, London, Paris, and other cities as soon as the thermometer dips each fall.

No clothing brand has ever been subjected to such aggressive campaign tactics.

The real reason for Canada Goose’s retreat from fur is clearly because the security, PR, and other costs of responding to relentless protests from animal activists simply became too much to bear. No clothing brand has ever been subjected to such aggressive campaign tactics. Store invasions, social media barrages, even noisy protests in front of CEO Dani Reiss’s home – Canada Goose held strong through it all for more than a decade. But the company’s extraordinary success in making fur cool for hip young consumers singled them out as a primary target for increasingly aggressive activist attacks.

While Dani Reiss always expressed pride about the northern roots of the company his grandfather founded, it no doubt became increasingly difficult to resist activist pressure once a majority share was sold to Bain Capital Private Equity, a US private investment firm, in 2013, and especially when Canada Goose was listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges, in 2017.  The bean counters were now in control, and the financial and other costs of defending fur presumably became harder to justify as the company targeted new (warmer) markets, and expanded its product line with lightweight, all-season apparel and accessories.

Simply put, Canada Goose did not decide to stop trimming its parkas with coyote fur because consumers didn’t want to buy them. Canada Goose is dropping fur because it was subjected to the equivalent of a mafia protection racket. The activist message was: “Do as we say or we will destroy your business!” And, after years of intense (and costly) pressure, it worked. This should worry anyone who believes in freedom of choice, no matter what you think about fur.

MUST READ: Canada Goose: We’re Committed to Using Fur. Vice-President Gavin Thompson talks to Truth About Fur, 2020.

Undermining Conservation

Another reason why activist bullying tactics should worry the public is that they undermine responsible and successful wildlife conservation policies. As Ontario Fur Managers Federation general manager Robin Horwath explained in media interviews, “Coyote populations are at record levels; they will have to be managed to maintain a balance, whether we use the fur or not … but if activists succeed in destroying the market, it’s tax-payers who will foot the bill.”

LISTEN: Robin Horwath explains to 64 Toronto radio why coyotes will still need to be culled.

Coyotes are overpopulated across North America; they kill calves and lambs, and are now in our cities – from Los Angeles to Toronto – eating pet dogs and cats, and even attacking people, something rarely seen in the past.

Without a market incentive for trappers, the situation will only worsen. Instead of being valued as a natural resource, to be used responsibly and sustainably, coyotes will again be reduced to the status of “pests”. Governments will again be obliged to offer bounties, as several states and provinces did until not so many years ago. Coyotes will still be killed, but the fur will be wasted. So much for the ethical treatment of animals!

SEE ALSO: Will urban coyotes change the animal rights debate? Truth About Fur.

First Nations leaders are also expressing their concern for how Canada Goose’s decision will impact the markets for furs their communities rely on.

Unfortunate Statement

Caught in the middle between activist pressure and the trappers they have worked with for decades, it should be noted that the media statement issued by Canada Goose about its new policy carefully avoided any negative comment about fur. Fair enough. It is unfortunate, however, that it did include a statement from the CEO of Humane Canada, a coalition of SPCAs and other animal welfare groups, claiming that this was “a significant step forward toward building a more humane and sustainable world.”

The use of coyote and other furs in North America is, in fact, an excellent example of the responsible and sustainable use of nature. And there is nothing humane about leaving nature (i.e., starvation and disease) to manage coyote populations. The leadership at Canada Goose knows this. So why was this misleading and provocative Humane Canada statement included in its announcement? We can only guess that Canada Goose is working with Humane Canada to provide cover for its continued use of goose down, which is the core of its business.

In fact, responding to the decision by Canada Goose to drop fur, PETA announced “a moratorium” on protests against its stores, while pledging to work “behind the scenes” to end the company’s use of down. (Can you spell “Protection Racket”?)

SEE ALSO: 5 Reasons Why PETA Won’t Make Me Ditch My Canada Goose. By Alan Herscovici, Truth About Fur, 2016.

Vicious Circle

Meanwhile, hardly a week goes by when we don’t hear that another major brand or retailer is “going fur free”. It becomes a self-reinforcing cycle, because when Saks, Neimans, Holt Renfrew, and other retailers say they will stop selling fur, there is even less incentive for brands like Canada Goose to continue producing it. If allowed to continue, this vicious circle will also make it more difficult for politicians to resist calls to ban the retail sale of fur products entirely.

SEE ALSO: Progressive politicians should promote fur, not ban it. Truth About Fur.

So what should the fur trade be doing about this? Some people are writing to Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss to express their concern. We should also be writing to and supporting the brands that continue to use fur, including Rudsak, Kanuk, Mackage, and others.

Most importantly, however, the fur trade must make a huge communications effort to regain control of our own story. We must explain to the public how fur is responsibly and sustainably produced in North America, and why fur is now, more than ever, an ethical choice. We must also sound the alarm about how activist bully tactics are eroding consumer choice, and threatening public health and safety by sabotaging responsible wildlife management. Must a child die from a rabid raccoon bite or being mauled by an urban coyote for the public to appreciate the role trappers play in controlling wildlife populations?

And we must make it personal: it’s time to put the real people of the fur trade – trappers, farmers, craftspeople – at the forefront of this campaign. These are the people whose livelihoods, cultures, and ethics are attacked by increasingly arrogant animal activists. Activist campaigns play on emotions — and in public debate, emotions trump logic — but we have feelings and values too. It’s time we were heard!

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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."