“Fur is Green!”

FUR COUNCIL OF CANADA PRESS RELEASE, NOVEMBER 24, 2008

“Fur is Green!”

Campaign promotes trade’s ethical, ecological values

Montreal: Instead of the usual fashion photography, the Fur Council of Canada‘s new ad campaign takes a green turn, promoting the ethical and ecological virtues of Canada’s founding industry.

“Billboards in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and other cities will announce our new website, www.FurisGreen.com,” said FCC executive vice-president Alan Herscovici.

“We have also developed a strong print campaign in cooperation with the James Bay Cree, to explain that they hunt beaver and other fur animals for food and important income. Most Canadians eat beef and wear leather. In northern communities, there are no cows, but an abundance of beavers, muskrats and other animals. When a hunter’s family has eaten the beaver roast, should they throw away the fur?”

“We decided to run this campaign now because, with fur so strong in fashion again, many young people are being attracted to fur for the first time,” said Paula Lishman, president of the Fur Council of Canada and a well-known creator of knitted fur designs.

“The extraordinary warmth and beauty of fur will always be its main appeal, but consumers now also want to know how their purchases impact the environment. We want them to know that fur is an ecologically responsible choice – because it is a long-lasting, natural, sustainable, recyclable and biodegradable material.”

“When we buy fur, we support people who live close to the land,” said Thomas Coon, of the Cree Trappers Association. “Our people care about nature because we live in it and earn our livelihood from it. We are the first to sound the alarm when wilderness is threatened by pollution or poorly-planned industrial projects.”

“That’s one reason why the sustainable use of wildlife is supported by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and other environmental authorities,” said Herscovici. “Synthetics are useful, but they are mostly made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource.”

“The furs we use are abundant in Canada. Strict government regulations ensure that we take only part of the surplus nature produces each year, never endangered species. There are as many beaver and muskrat now in Canada as when Europeans first arrived. Raccoon, coyotes and foxes are more abundant than ever. This is a true environmental success story,” said Herscovici.

“The fact that fur apparel is very long-lasting and can be re-styled or recycled many times before it is discarded also makes ecological sense. We often see furs that have been worn 30 years or more, passed from one generation to the next. How many textile coats would have ended up in the landfill over that time?” asks Lishman.

“The ecological cost of ‘cheap’, mass-produced, disposable fashion is just beginning to be calculated – think millions of tons of poor-quality fibers and short-life garments filling up landfills. Everyone’s talking about plastic bags accumulating in our environment. But clothing made from petroleum-based synthetics is just another form of the same problem.

“Fur, by contrast, is biodegradable. It’s one of the few articles of clothing that is regularly passed from one generation to the next. And when it finally starts to fall apart, after many decades of use, you can throw it into your compost heap and start the cycle all over again.

Canada is also a world leader in developing humane standards for fur farms and in the wild. Research directed by the Fur Institute of Canada provided the scientific basis for the new Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards.

The International Fur Trade Federation has launched a new “Origin Assured” label to identify furs produced in countries where animal-welfare standards are in place.

“With consumers more interested now in the understanding the impact their purchasing and lifestyle choices have on the planet, we think it is important to explain the very positive ecological role of the fur trade – a side of the story we rarely hear,” said Herscovici.

The fur trade contributes more than $800 million to the Canadian economy annually, and provides income to some 65,000 people, including aboriginal and other Canadians living in some of the most remote regions of the country. Total Canadian fur exports topped $380 million in 2007.

Worldwide, fur apparel sales passed the $15 billion mark during the Winter of 2007, up 11 per cent from the previous year. This was the eighth consecutive increase since the International Fur Trade Federation began tracking global retail fur sales in 1998-1999. (These statistics do not include mass market or fur-trimmed articles sold in fashion or department stores.)

For further information, please contact:

Alan Herscovici (Fur Council of Canada): 514-865-7601
Serge Lariviere (Trapper; Cree Income Security Board): (418) 655-1968
Thomas Coon (Cree Trappers Association): 418- 770-8367
Rob Cahill (Fur Institute of Canada): 613-878-0034
Paula Lishman (designer, Fur Council of Canada): 905-440-5323