;Composite=(type=URL,url=https://images.radio-canada.ca/v1/assets/elements/16x9/outdated-content-2019.png),gravity=SouthEast,placement=Over,location=(0,0),scale=1 "New York wants to ban fur sales, Canadian industry worries")
Last March, a representative to the New York State Assembly, Linda Rosenthal, introduced a bill to this effect. She wants to help reduce the number of animals killed for the fur industry.
A consumer and business licensing committee is studying the proposal.
The Fur Harvesters Auction auction house in North Bay, Ontario fears the ripple effect that a ban on the sale of furs in New York could have.
It would have an impact on how many furs we could send to New York City, but the biggest impact would be the message that would be sent to the world of design and fashion.
Howard Noseworthy points out that the organization made a presentation to New York City City Council about the consequences of a ban on the economy and jobs.
Fur Harvesters Auction processes approximately one million furs per year from trappers in Canada and the United States.
Skinning of a beaver.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Lise Millette
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The Ontario Federation of Fur Managers is asking MPPs to write letters to New York City on their behalf.
The federation criticizes the approach which it believes aims to restrict people from their freedom to choose their clothes.
She argues that wildlife management is necessary to avoid conflict between humans and animals.
We have the most humane trap policies in the world. We have quotas to ensure healthy and sustainable populations.
Trappers, like Marcel Dillon from the Hearst region, also fear the possible impact of the measure considered in New York elsewhere in the United States and in the world. Already, he has seen the price of furs drop.
Trapper Marcel Dillon prepares to set up a beaver trap by a river.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Francis Bouchard
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For several years, a person cannot make a living with the trap door. We’re not even covering expenses right now
, he says, stressing that he pursues the profession out of passion, as is the case for others.
If the sale of fur were to be eliminated in New York or elsewhere, Marcel Dillon recalls that trappers should continue trapping for the management of animal populations, such as the beaver, sometimes considered harmful to humans.
Population management is the reason the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry authorizes the trap.
We have to trap the beaver and the marten. We have a quota to fill. If we catch them and we are not able to sell them, we will have to throw away the fur and all the flesh and it will be useless
, he concludes.
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