While several Quebec coat manufacturers are giving up on fur, a family business from Normandin, in Lac-Saint-Jean, is standing up to defend the sector.
• Read also: Fur: Bilodeau will not imitate Canada Goose
“It saddens us to see that the big brands decide to abandon a natural and sustainable material,” says Samuel Bilodeau, CEO of Bilodeau Canada.
The company, established 25 years ago, employs 80 people and makes accessories and coats from wild Canadian fur.
Undeniable advantages
If he recognizes that the industry is not “at its prime” and that fashion is no longer for long fur coats, Mr. Bilodeau thinks that the accessory market remains. He wants to give fur its letters of nobility.
"It's a source of pride when someone calls me after 30 years and tells me that his coat is still as warm as the first day," says the entrepreneur.
Excellent quality, natural, local and recyclable material: according to Mr. Bilodeau, fur has many advantages, compared to synthetic fur that is very often imported and made from petroleum.
wildlife management
The fur industry obtains its supplies from two sources: farms and the hunting or trapping of wild animals.
"Livestock, we are less for that," explains Mr. Bilodeau, specifying that 97% of their furs come from wild animals.
The businessman believes he has a role to play in managing the beaver population in Quebec.
Arguing a potential overpopulation, harmful to certain municipalities, it would be necessary to kill them anyway, so "might as well value them rather than put them in the trash".
The Ministry of the Environment, also responsible for wildlife, indicates that it does not carry out inventories of the beaver population in Quebec. But with the constant decline in "harvested" animals, the species would be "under-exploited in Quebec".
“Whether they are bred in captivity or trapped in their natural state, we oppose [the fact of] killing animals for a luxury textile”, reacts Sophie Gaillard, acting director general of the SPCA. Montreal.
Too cruel, says SPCA
And wildlife management – if necessary – must be done responsibly and respectful of animal welfare, she adds.
However, Quebec regulations on trapping would be late on the issue, causing agonizing deaths, believes Ms. Gaillard. Animals could thus remain caught for a long time before succumbing.
The number of mink pelts hauled in 2014, when production peaked in Canada, was 3.4 million, according to Statistics Canada.
Four years later, production had fallen by 53%. There were still 1.6 million mink skins lifted in 2018.
The value of fur also fell in the same period, even more abruptly: -74%.
