Fur

Fur is the thick growth of hair that covers the skin of many kinds of mammals. People make coats and other clothing from fur. They value fur for its beauty as well as the warmth that it provides.

Fur consists of a combination of stiff, oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair sheds moisture, and the underfur acts as an insulating blanket that keeps the animal warm. The fur and skin of an animal are called a pelt.

Prehistoric people wore animal skins for warmth and protection. They also used fur for blankets, rugs, and wallhangings. During the 400’s B.C., an active fur market opened in Athens, Greece. Fur became a luxury in the Middle Ages (A.D. 400’s through the 1400’s). During this period, only royalty could afford such expensive furs as ermine and sable. The desire to profit from furs stimulated much of the early exploration of North America. In the early 1600’s, fur trading became the most important industry in Canada. The first fur ranches raised silver foxes in the 1880’s in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Today, the fur industry plays an important role in the economies of many nations of the world. Most of the world’s fur supply comes from fur ranches, also called fur farms, where millions of fur-bearing animals are raised each year. The rest of the world’s fur supply comes from trapping animals in the wild.

The major sources of the most popular furs obtained by trapping are Canada, Russia, and the United States. The United States and many other nations prohibit the import of furs of animals that are in danger of becoming extinct. See Wildlife conservation.

Some people object to the killing of animals for their fur. They especially oppose what they consider inhumane treatment in the trapping and killing of animals or in the animals’ confinement on ranches.

Kinds of fur

Natural fur

comes from animals. It can vary greatly in color, texture, and value. Natural furs range from jet-black to snow-white, with many shades and combinations of brown, blue, gray, red-orange, and tan. Their textures vary from the velvety softness of sheared beaver to the coarseness of badger.

Artificial fur

is made from synthetic fibers. The fibers are processed to look like real fur. Sometimes natural fur fibers are woven into the fabric to make it feel more like genuine fur. Compared with natural fur, artificial fur generally costs less and is not as warm.

How fur is obtained

Fur ranching.

Popular furs that are produced on ranches include chinchilla, fox, lamb, mink, and sable. Fur ranchers breed their animals based on the principles of genetics. Ranchers try to produce animals that have the most desirable color and body size, thickness of underfur, length and evenness of guard hair, and overall softness of fur.

Most ranchers breed and raise fur-bearing animals in pens. Once the animals mature, they are usually killed in gas chambers or by an injection of poison.

Trapping.

Popular furs obtained from trapped animals include beaver, bobcat, coyote, fisher, fox, lynx, marten, mink, muskrat, nutria, opossum, raccoon, sable, and squirrel. Most trapping is done in the winter months when the animals’ furs are thickest, longest, and shiniest.

A trapper sets a series of traps called a trap line along riverbanks and other areas the animals visit regularly. The most common type of trap is the leg-hold trap, which has metal jaws designed to snap shut, holding an animal by its paw until the trapper arrives to kill it. The padded trap has rubber inserts on its jaws. A Conibear, also called a body gripper or quick-kill trap, is designed to stun and kill the animal almost instantly in its scissorlike grip.

Skinning.

Two main methods are used for skinning animals—cased and open. In the cased method, the rancher or trapper slits a line across the rump from leg to leg and peels the pelt off inside out. Coyotes, ermines, foxes, minks, raccoons, and other small animals are usually skinned by the cased method.

In the open method, a line is slit up the animal’s belly and the pelt is peeled off from side to side. Such animals as beavers and badgers are skinned by the open method.

After removing the pelts, ranchers and trappers scrape them clean of all fat and tissue. The scraped pelts are then dried.

Marketing fur

Most furs are sold to manufacturers and retailers at large auctions. Trappers sell their furs to a country collector, or local buyer, who collects large lots (bundles) of similar furs. Country collectors and ranchers then send their furs to auction houses in the world’s major fur-trading centers.

The main auction houses in North America are in Seattle and in Toronto and North Bay, Ontario. Leading European houses are in St. Petersburg, Russia; in Copenhagen, Denmark; and near Helsinki, Finland. Fur producers own many major houses.

Representatives of the auction houses visit ranchers and country collectors to arrange shipment of pelts to market. The largest numbers of furs arrive at the houses from November to February.

Buyers may examine several hundred thousand pelts in the warehouse on inspection days immediately before the sale. The furs are then auctioned off on sales days. Buyers pay for their purchases on or before the prompt day, which is usually about a month after the sales days. On the prompt day, furs are shipped according to the buyers’ instructions.

Some ranchers and trappers sell their pelts to manufacturers and retailers through a broker. Most brokers work in cities in which large amounts of fur products are made.

Processing fur

Dressing.

Pelts are cleaned and made flexible by a process called dressing. First, the pelt is softened in a chemical solution that removes all excess tissue and grease. Next, any remaining flesh is scraped from the hide, either by a worker called a dresser or by a machine. Then, a dresser applies a special grease to the leather and puts the pelt into a machine called a kicker. The kicker has wooden or steel mallets that pound the grease into the pores of the skin. The pelt is then placed into a revolving drum, where it is cleaned and dried with special sawdust. Later, a dresser may pluck out the long guard hairs, leaving the thick underfur. The fur may also be sheared for a plush effect.

Dyeing.

Many furs are dyed to achieve a fashionable color or to make them look like a different type of fur. In the past, for example, rabbit fur was dyed to resemble seal fur. Dyers may put pelts into a vat of dye, or they may dye a garment by hand. Sometimes a fur is bleached and then dyed an entirely different color. In a process called tipping, only the tips of the guard hairs are dyed. Tipping helps the manufacturer match several pelts to be used in the same garment.

Cutting and sewing.

A fur manufacturer first chooses a pattern for a garment and then selects pelts that look very much alike for the garment. A group of such pelts is called a matched bundle.

Next, workers stretch the skins and trim off the heads, paws, bellies, rumps, and tails. These parts are used to make cheaper garments. A worker called a cutter cuts the pelts into thin strips. An operator then sews the strips into long, narrow pieces of fur. These pieces are fit to the pattern and then given to the blocker. The blocker applies a small amount of water to the skin to make it stretch just enough to cover the edges of the pattern. Next, the fur is blocked, or stapled, to a large paperboard and left to dry. Later, any surplus material is trimmed away and the fur is sewed into a garment. Finally, the garment is cleaned and given to the finisher, who sews in a lining.

In the United States, the Fur Products Labeling Act, which was approved in 1951, requires that all fur garments contain a label stating (1) the name in English of the animal that produced the fur, (2) the country of origin of the fur if the fur or the garment is imported, and (3) whether the fur is natural or dyed. If the garment contains fur from paws, bellies, or other scrap parts, the label must so state. In addition, if a garment contains fur products that are secondhand, that fact must be indicated. That is, should a garment be remade or restyled from previously owned fur garments, that must be stated on the label.

Controversy over fur

For the past several decades, there has been a movement against the purchase and wearing of fur garments and other items made from fur. Many are opposed to people wearing fur because they believe that the methods used to obtain pelts cause fur-bearing trapped animals and animals raised on fur ranches to suffer needlessly. Others disagree with this view, and they perceive trapping as a part of regulated wildlife management programs. In addition, the Fur Farm Animal Welfare Coalition, an organization under the Fur Commission USA, monitors practices and conditions on ranches in the United States.

See also Alaska (Fur industry); Clothing (Clothing materials); Fur trade; Pribilof Islands; Trapping.