Coyotes dying in agony: is this the true cost of stars’ favourite coat?
WITH its front paw clamped in a steel trap, its eyes wide with terror, the coyote makes a last bid for freedom.
But the tether holds firm and the hunter approaches. A shot rings out. The coyote, a member of the dog family, lies dead.
The video, posted online and viewed more than 25million times, undoubtedly makes for unpleasant viewing.
But for owners of this winter’s most sought-after coat, it could make them pause for thought.
Once, Canada Goose’s parkas were the preserve of the rich and famous, with celebrities including Jodie Foster, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lopez, Matt damon and daniel Craig photographed wearing them. now, though, they have entered the mainstream.
Middle-class men and women are splashing out between £700 and £1,650 for these distinctive coats.
They are buying garments guaranteed to keep them warm. Used for decades by mountaineers and adventurers, they are designed to be used in temperatures as low as minus 30c.
Crucial for survival in the Arctic or the Alps, undoubtedly, but not for popping to the shops in Chelsea or watching from the touchline as the children play football in Cheshire.
But what many of its fashionconscious owners seem to be unaware of is what animal rights activists claim is the cruelty behind the coats.
Many Canada Goose coats have hoods trimmed with fur from coyotes shot or trapped in Canada and north America (although the company behind the coats says scenes in the video of the animal being killed have nothing to do with its suppliers, who are all traceable and act ethically).
Trapping animals uses a variety of methods, including leg traps similar to that featured in the video.
And in the time it takes for the hunter to return, they can inflict terrible injuries upon themselves trying to escape — including biting off their paws. Fur-trade campaigner Michael Howie says: ‘Animals will bite at traps, breaking teeth, and pull and twist, breaking bones and creating deep abrasions. In extreme cases, they will break, twist and gnaw away limbs.’
And that is not the only animal welfare concern. The coats’ warmth comes from the goose and duck down in the lining. Activists complain these birds are often raised in factory farms, their throats slit while they are stunned. The company rejects this claim, saying it believes ‘animals are entitled to humane treatment in life and in death’, and insists their suppliers share the same approach.
But why use fur and down, ask campaigners, when modern synthetic materials will be as good?
Anne Brainard, director of corporate affairs at the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), says: It’s time for Canada Goose to stop supporting this needless violence.’
The company says PETA’s accusations are misleading and insists it does not ‘condone any wilful mistreatment or neglect of animals, or acts that maliciously cause undue pain, injury or suffering’.
Given the huge financial rewards that the company is currently reaping, Canada Goose will be under pressure not to change its successful formula.
I visited half a dozen stores in London where Canada Goose coats are sold. At Harvey nichols, the male assistant boasted they were selling ten coats a day at roughly £800 each. At a shop called Choice in the Westfield Shopping Centre in East London, the coats were also proving a big hit. ‘The jackets are our best seller,’ said the sales assistant.
While all the assistants I spoke to were aware they were trimmed with real fur, beyond that their knowledge was decidedly limited.
At Harrods, the assistant told me: ‘Canada Goose has contracts with farms in Canada for the fur, but they’re not shooting or killing coyotes or anything like that.’
Similarly vague was the female assistant at Boys Base in Westfield, where a child’s parka sells for £375. ‘‘I just hope they’re captured in a humane way,’ she said.
More honest, perhaps, was the man who served me at American Classics in Covent Garden. When asked how they got the fur for the coats he simply replied: ‘Painfully’.
Canada Goose was established in Toronto in 1957, specialising in woollen vests, raincoats and snowmobile suits. But by the Eighties, its down-filled coats were adopted by those working in extreme conditions such as scientists in Antarctica and Everest mountaineers.
The fur trim was said to offer unique qualities. According to the company, not only does it not freeze, but ‘disrupts airflow and creates turbulent air which helps protect the face from frostbite’.
The coats also became popular with film crews — and then stars on the other side of the cameras — Sir david Attenborough wore one, appropriately, at the north Pole for BBC’s Frozen Planet series.
Suddenly, the garments, with a distinctive disc-shaped red, white and blue badge and the words Canada Goose Arctic Program, started to appear everywhere.
The company’s biggest publicity coup came in 2013 when American model Kate Upton was pictured posing naked but for bikini bottoms and one of their parkas and made the cover of Sports Illustrated.
That same year, new York private equity firm Bain Capital bought a majority stake in the company.
Revenues have reportedly increased by more than 450 per cent in the past five years with sales growth of 50per cent predicted in the U.S. alone in 2016. The coats and other items are sold online and in concessions in 50 countries. Plans are afoot for a $2 billion stock market floatation.
Canada Goose this year opened two stores, in Toronto and new York. But both have been targeted by protesters, some in ‘bloody’ jackets with their limbs ‘stuck’ in steel-jaw traps. The badge was also depicted with blood dripping from it and the words: ‘Proudly torturing animals since 1957.’
PETA says the campaign against the company is one of their most important, and believes that once consumers learn about the fur’s origins, they will switch to products that use faux fur.
It is supported by The FurBearers, a Canadian organisation that fights the commercial fur
trade. Spokesman Michael Howie explains that in Canada, coyote can be legally trapped in three different ways: with leg-hold traps, Conibear traps — which catch them by the body or head — and snares.
The leg-hold trap doesn’t damage the pelt of the animal, which lives until the hunter returns.
The Conibear trap has two sprung frames that slam shut on the body or head of the animal. They’re supposed to kill instantly, but this does not always happen. Then there are snares, wire loops tethered to the ground where animals pass through.
Again they are supposed to kill instantly, strangling the animals. But Mr Howie says that often they will suffer a lingering death.
The reason coyotes can be hunted in Canada is because there are so many, and they are responsible for killing livestock. But Mr Howie says the traps do not only kill coyote. ‘Traps maim and kill other, endangered animals,’ he says.
Asked to explain why it continued to use fur and down in its products, a spokeswoman for Canada Goose insisted it was all ‘ethically, responsibly and sustainably sourced’.
‘We are committed to providing full transparency about how we make our products,’ she said. ‘We believe animals are entitled to humane treatment in life and in death, and we are deeply committed to the responsible use and ethical sourcing of all animal materials in our products.
‘We do not condone any wilful mistreatment or neglect of animals, or acts that maliciously cause undue pain, injury or suffering.’
SHE added: ‘We only purchase fur from licensed North American trappers, who are regulated by state, provincial and territorial wildlife government agencies.
‘According to wildlife biologists and other experts, trapping is an essential conservation tool to help maintain stable and healthy wildlife populations in a responsible way.
‘We use coyote fur because it is highly abundant, sustainable and bio-degradable material. In many regions of North America, coyotes are considered a pest.’
As for traps killing other animals, she said ‘very few non-target species are taken’ and modern traps allowed for the release of any animal wrongly trapped.
The company said the down used was fully traceable and sourced from animals that have not been subjected to any ‘unfair practices, inhumane treatment or undue harm’.
As for the PETA campaign, it said that the video of the trapped coyote being shot did not come from a Canada Goose supplier. ‘PETA has sought to mislead consumers through a series of attacks that ignore strict government regulation as well as Canada Goose’s commitment to ethical sourcing practices and responsible use of fur,’ the spokeswoman said.
‘We respect the personal choice that consumers make in what to wear and hope that PETA would offer the same respect to consumers who choose to wear fur and down-filled garments.’
But there is one further problem. Counterfeit Canada Goose coats are flooding the market.
Materials used to line the counterfeit coats can include shredded, waste feathers carrying dangerous fungi and bacteria or, worse still, down plucked from live ducks and geese — a cruel practice common in China and other parts of the world.
The fur is likely to come from animals farmed in horrific conditions.
Canada Goose is as keen to stop the counterfeiters as anyone, and it warns the fakes are unlikely to provide the same sort of protection from the elements.
Which for anyone climbing Everest could be a life-and-death problem. But which for the majority of British users popping out to the shops in their £800 coat — complete with coyote fur trim — is unlikely to be such an issue.