Anti-sealing campaigns will not deter support for Canadian seal hunting, says stakeholder group

by the Fur Institute of Canada -

Ottawa, March 9th, 2010 – On the eve of the 2010 East Coast seal hunt, the Fur Institute of Canada today reiterated its support for sustainable seal hunting in Canada. The Institute, which represents seal hunters, aboriginals and marine mammal scientists through its Seals and Sealing Network, said it will continue to oppose efforts to ban the hunting of seals.

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Recent subzero temperatures have brought a flood of fur onto the streets. Are attitudes changing toward the trade?

by Justine Picardie, Telegraph.co.uk


As temperatures dropped last month and the snow kept falling, I started noticing fur coats in my neighbourhood, the politically correct north London suburb of Crouch End. This is a place with an independently owned organic shop that still flourishes next to Waitrose, where campaigners wave petitions for Greenpeace and against factory farming, and a large population of foxes are sufficiently confident of their welcome to saunter across my road in daylight.

The furs that have suddenly sprouted around here are not the kind that you would see in Mayfair or Knightsbridge – the smooth minks of a Russian oligarch’s wife or mistress, say – but vintage (in other words, decidedly second hand). I’ve spotted them on young mothers wearing Ugg boots, pushing buggies through the slushy streets, and on teenage girls in skinny jeans and red wellies; a constituency that up until this winter would have stuck to their usual uniform of Gap denim jackets or Uniqlo pea coats.

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This is a tough one to tease out. For many people, of course, a garment made from animal pelts will always be an inappropriate use of natural resources—thus making fake fur the greener choice. But what if you're neutral on the animal-use issue and just want the product with a minimal impact on the planet? There's no easy answer, since so much of the data in circulation comes from groups with a vested interest in swaying you one way or the other.

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