Step 1: Trapping and Fur Farming
Government wildlife officials set strict trapping seasons for each species. These seasons are adjusted to ensure that the fur animal populations remain abundant.
In Canada, trappers must pass a mandatory course in which they learn to use new humane trapping methods and the principles of sustainable use established by wildlife officials and biologists. Trapping beaver, muskrat and other animals provides trappers with food and money for new equipment and supplies needed to maintain a land-based life. Meat not used for food is returned to the forest to help other animals survive the long winter. Nothing is wasted.
Not all furs come from the wild. The first efforts to raise mink and fox on farms began in North America one hundred years ago. Today, about half the furs produced in Canada (and as much as 80 percent worldwide) come from family farms. Most fox and mink used in the fur trade are raised on farms. These animals have been raised for decades, generation after generation, like other domestic livestock. Feed for farmed mink and foxes is produced with leftovers from abattoirs, fish, plants and other food processing sectors.