Canada’s oldest retailer, Hudson’s Bay Company, also known as The Bay, is no longer selling products made with real fur, according to PETA.
The Hudson’s Bay Company was founded in 1670, and was once the largest fur trader in North America. The Bay had a major hand in the British effort to colonize North America, acting to supply the European demand for fur—especially fur from wild beavers, who were killed and skinned to make felt hats.
The Bay is one of dozens of retailers and designers that have gone fur-free in recent years, including Saks Fifth Avenue (which is also owned by The Bay), Canada Goose, Nordstrom, Versace, Michael Kors, and Gucci.
Animals Suffer in the Fur Industry
In the fur trade, animals like foxes, coyotes, minks, and rabbits endure heartbreaking cruelty for the sake of fashion.
Trappers will commonly trap animals in leg-hold traps, which can break bones, or Conibear or snare traps, which strangle their victims. Animals caught in these traps can be forced to wait for hours, days, or even weeks in excruciating pain before being killed. Sometimes, they’ll even chew off their own limbs to escape.
Fur farms confine animals in tiny wire cages in filthy warehouses or in the outdoors. Animals in fur farms often show signs of poor mental health and distress due to their confinement, and will perform repetitive stereotypic behaviors, or self-mutilate due to stress.
In 2022, Animal Justice released troubling images from a mink farm and Quebec’s last fox farm, showing heartbreaking suffering and illegal conditions. Minks were forced to live in cages and nesting boxes coated with a buildup of dirt, rust, and cobwebs, and foxes lived in tiny, rusted mesh cages, with no enrichment and inadequate protection from the weather.
Photos: We Animals Media
National Bill Could End Fur Farming in Canada
Bill C-247, the Act to Prohibit Fur Farming, was introduced by MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith in 2022. If passed, the bill would close all fur farms to protect animals from suffering, and to eliminate the alarming public health risks.
Sign the petition today to support the bill and to help end fur farming in Canada!
