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Chapter 6 Fur Animals Information
Information about the worldwide trade in furs is difficult to come by because official statistics of animals farmed and trapped for their fur are not always available. Even when statistics about fur are published, not all fur-bearing animals and furs (pelts or furskins) are recorded. For instance, in addition to millions of foxes and mink killed for their fur, millions more are kept as breeders to replenish stock, many animals die too young to produce marketable furs, and many furs are discarded as sub-standard before reaching market. Statistics, therefore, tend to under estimate the numbers of animals killed for their fur and you should treat them as minimum figures. Number of Farmed Mink Worldwide At least fifty million mink fur pelts are produced at fur farms annually worldwide, up from about thirty million produced annually around 2000. Ten countries produce about 90 percent of mink furs. Denmark and China produce about half the world total of mink furs.
Number of Farmed Fox Furs on the World Market About five million fox furs went onto the world market each year around the start of this century. Finland was the world's biggest producer of farmed fox furs, about half the world's supply. China and Russia were also leading producers. The number of China's farmed foxes is growing annually; it was estimated at 3.5 million for 2005 (Dying For Fur), overtaking Finland. Up to date statistics on fox furs (as with other fur species) seem non-existent. Since the early 2000's the number of foxes farmed for their fur as increased considerably. China, for instance, was forecast for 2010 to hold 25 million farmed foxes for their fur (GAIN Report Number: CH10031, Foreign Agricultural Service, USDA).
Farming Fur AnimalsHousingThe basic practice of fur farming is fairly standard throughout the world. Fur farmed animals live in very long sheds. Each animal in a shed lives in a separate cage. Cages are arranged in rows along the length of a shed facing each other a few feet off the ground for ease of clearing droppings. In some countries sheds have no sides to allow in daylight and warmth. In Denmark, where a major portion of the world's mink are housed, sheds are four metres wide and up to 50 metres long (4 x 550 yds).Cages are made of wire netting and are just a bit bigger than the animal they contain (mink are a little smaller and foxes a little bigger than domestic cats). The fur trades says "These cages give the farm animals sufficient space for normal movement and investigative behaviour." Foxes in China, a major fur-farming country, each live in a cage the size of two suitcases (90 x 70 x 60 cm / 35 x 28 x 24 inches). Mink cages at some farms in the West have nesting boxes containing straw or wood and some foxes have 'shelter shelves' for additional protection against the weather. Cages of farmed animals in China are completely bare. Breeding AbnormalitiesControlled breeding brings out the variety of colours in mink and fox fur coats. Pure white mink are especially sort after by the fur trade. However, breeding for colours brings out physical abnormalities, for example white mink are blind. Other abnormalities included anaemia, deafness, nervous disorders and susceptibility to infectious diseases.StressThe caged fur animals engage in stereotypies. Stereotypy is behaviour repeated over and over for long periods with no apparent goal. Turning in circles, pacing up and down, rocking back and forth, nodding or circling the head are all stereotypes. Stereotypy is a sign that the caged fur animals live in stressful environments where they suffer boredom and frustration. Wild free-living animals do not display stereotypies. The caged fur animals also fear approaching humans, are apathetic, kill their young and mutilate themselves.FoodFood is the largest expense for fur farms, equivalent to half or more of the cost of producing a pelt. Fur farm animals annually consume millions of tons of food by-products, the unwanted waste humans will not eat. Mink and foxes feed on by-products of grain, fish, poultry (including rotten eggs), pig, beef and dairy (for instance expired cheese) that would otherwise be tipped into landfills. By using by-products, the fur industry says, fur farms reduce the millions of tonnes of animal waste generated by humans.Killing MethodsNo laws in China or the United States regulate the handling or killing of animals farmed for their fur. A guide to killing methods is that they must not spoil pelts and make them unsellable. Therefore, slaughterers cannot use the killing methods for other farm animals. The industry must also keep slaughtering costs down. The International Fur Trade Federation stipulates that fur farmers should behave with the highest standards of care, including when killing animals. China is a member of the International Fur Traders Federation but does not follow the 'highest standards of care'. Fur farmed animals in China die by farm workers clubbing or beating them against the ground, followed by skinning with a knife. Some animals are reported still alive after skinning.In the United States the only method for slaughtering farmed mink that is officially approved (by the Fur Commission USA, a body representing US mink farmers) is dropping the animals into a container of pure carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide gas, said to render them immediately unconscious and quickly dead. Foxes on the other hand undergo electrocution. Farmhands force an electrode into a fox's mouth and another into the fox's rectum or clips them onto the fox's ear and foot to deliver a killing electric charge. The fur trade is not open about slaughter methods, but fur trade critics emphasise the brutality of the killing:
Carcass DisposalFur farms dispose of their dead animals as economically as possible (of course the farms only want the animals' fur). Most fur-bearers taste bad to human palates so they become various products like animal feed, pet food, organic compost, fertilizer, paint and tires. Some carcasses go to zoos and aquariums and some end up as crab bait. Mink faeces make crop fertiliser and their fat is turned into oil to manufacture soap, face oils, cosmetics and leather preservative.Mink, the major fur-farmed animal in the United States, go round in an economic cycle. However, a number of processes of mink farming enhance the spread of disease, which might also pass on to humans. The top half of the graphic (green) shows that mink become garments and other commodities for humans, for instance soap. The lower half of the graphic (blue) shows that mink farmers feed the carcasses and droppings of mink to their own mink via livestock/poultry and farm crops. Thus: 1) mink carcasses feed livestock and poultry. 2) mink droppings fertilize farm crops that then 3) go to livestock and poultry. Finally, 4) the by-products of livestock and poultry go to mink for food. Trapping Fur AnimalsMost animals trapped for their fur live in Canada, Russia and the United States. The US claims the largest number of fur trappers, about 150,000 people with a licence. Canada has an estimated 60,000 trappers. These North American trappers are mainly part-timers and few earn a serious income from trapping. A lot of trappers use steel leghold traps to catch animals. Legholds come in a range of sizes for trapping animals of different dimensions, from the small weasel to the large bear. Legholds are relatively cheap and portable and they all work in much the same way. They have two steel jaws backed by heavy springs which snap shut on a foot or leg when an animal steps onto the release mechanism between the jaws.
About 100 countries - excluding the United States, Canada and Russia - have so far banned the use of leghold traps on the grounds that they are inhumane and indiscriminate. Britain (where they are called gin traps) was one of the first countries to outlaw them in the 1950's and the European Union banned steel-jaw leghold traps in 1995. Humane issues with legholds are:
A History of Fur Trapping Fur farms produce most pelts nowadays, but historically it was backwoodsman who provided the first pelts by trapping wild animals, especially in Siberia and North America. The international fur trade was the primary incentive for Europeans to explore and colonise these regions. Sable in Siberia was Russia's greatest asset from the 16th to 18th centuries. Sable and other fur-bearers, like wolf, fox, lynx, otter, beaver and squirrel, were trapped, netted or shot so fast that their populations almost vanished. In the wake of the trappers came traders, farmers, soldiers and government officials to make money, claim the land, pacify the native inhabitants, keep order and collect taxes. The trappers had continually to push eastwards to exploit new fur populations and eventually reached the Pacific Ocean. Then they began trapping and exploiting Alaska (then part of Russia). Meanwhile around 1600 the English and French were rivals for fur in eastern North America. Although beaver fur hats were fashionable in Europe, beavers were now rare because people trapped and hunted them so much. So the Europeans in North America sent consignments of other furs, as well as beaver, back home. As hunters and trapper used up all the fur animals they moved progressively westwards and, as in Siberia, colonisers moved in after them. The fur trade was responsible for devastating native peoples and the sable, beaver and many other species almost went extinct. In the mid-20th century trappers turned to the cats and brought many cat species close to the brink of extinction. Before conservationists managed to abate the trapping, hundreds of thousands of cheetahs, leopards, jaguars, ocelots, geoffroys and other cats suffered and died. Marketing Fur
The ultimate consumers of fur are the people who wear it, commonly women, often for fashion or luxury status, when they or their partners buy it. Before this, pelts pass through a number of stages in several countries. Auction HousesAuction houses take most pelts from farmers and trappers. Pelts are graded and sorted into lots ('bundles') and prospective buyers from around the world inspect them before bidding. Buyers are mainly brokers acting for furriers or for companies that buy and sell pelts globally. Thus countries which no longer produce fur can still be big players in the fur market, like Britain where fur farms are now illegal. The largest auction houses are in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Saint Petersburg, Seattle and Toronto.Processing FurThe semi-raw pelts from the auction houses go to factories for processing or 'dressing' ready for combining with garments. The primary processing centres are in the Baltic States, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.Processing pelts entails many stages. Examples are: Scraping to remove layers of skin and other tissues. Soaking in brine to make the skin soft and supple. Plucking out the long outer hairs to reveal the finer under-fur. Cutting hairs to a uniform length. Dying in any one of numerous colours to make hairs look uniform. Spraying dye along a centre line to create a natural-looking centre stripe. Glossing by chemical or mechanical processes to create lustre. Cutting and sewing pelts to re-shape and lengthen them. The pelts are then sorted into bundles of matching furs - graded by colour, size, hair length and texture and go to the furrier's workshop. The FurrierFurriers are manufacturers who turn fur into products, usually clothing (but see for example Fur Brushes & Bows), and may work with designers to contrive fur garments for the fashion industry.Furriers cut the pelts to a pattern, then moisten, stretch and tack the pelts to a table for shaping and further softening. If necessary they slice the pelts into narrow strips and stitch them together to make larger expanses of material. A full-length mink coat has hundreds of such pieces. Odd pieces are sewn together to make cheaper garments or linings. It takes about a year after killing some animals to turn their fur into purchasable clothes ready for the consumer. China is the largest manufacturer of fur products. As well as farming its own fur, China imports millions of raw pelts from North America and Europe. China manufactures about 70 percent of the fur trade's mink garments and is the world's biggest exporter of finished fur garments and fur products, through Hong Kong, mainly to the US, Europe and Japan. See Fur Animal Statistics for more figures. Retail ShopsThe penultimate consumers of fur are retail shops, from boutiques to department stores and other outlets. The biggest consumer markets of fur garments are North America, Europe, Russia and Scandinavia. Markets in Japan, Korea and China have recently joined in.Glossary of Fur Marketing TermsAuction houses - markets where raw pelts undergo selection for quality before sale.By-products - the bits of animal bodies humans do not eat, eg guts, ears, eyes and feet. Dressing - tanning raw pelts to turn the skin into soft pliable leather. Fur - the soft and pleasant hair from mammals, eg cats, chinchillas, foxes. pelt - same as a pelt. Fur-bearer - an animal with a coat of fur. Furrier - person who deals in furs or fur clothing (but not farmers or trappers). Furskin - same as a pelt. Harvest - killing animals as a crop. Pelt - an animal's skin with fur attached. Dressed pelts - pelts that have been fully or partially prepared for wearing. Raw pelts - pelts that are untreated in any way. Trim - a small piece of fur that decorates part of a garment, eg a collar or hem. Species of Fur AnimalsThis is a list of common fur-bearers used by the fur trade. Fur-bearers are usually carnivores (such as mink, lynx and wolf) or rodents (for instance muskrat, beaver and squirrel). The two most important fur-farmed animals are mink and Arctic fox. Mink are far the most numerous fur-farmed animals and the fur trade describes them as "the staple raw material of the fur industry." Other important fur-bearers for the fur trade are sable, red fox and chinchilla. Inexpressible numbers of domestic cats and dogs in Asia are skinned for their pelts.
Tricky Names Science labels each species with a unique two-part name to avoid confusing species. The fur trade, however, gives the same animal species different names, sometimes depending on coat colour variation (as with the foxes) and this can be confusing. Common confusions are:
For & Against: argue your case about fur1. Culpability
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