Lifestyle

Canada Goose to stop buying real fur by 2022



Canada Goose is an outerwear label famed for its £900 Arctic-ready coats adorned with real Coyote fur-trimmed hoods.

As one of the last remaining major brands to resolutely continue using virgin fur, Canada Goose stores the world over are perennially besieged by animal rights protestors.

Today, though, the Toronto-based label has announced that, starting in 2022 it will stop buying new fur from trappers, and thus cease its significant business demand for the killing of coyotes.


The brand, which will continue to use down feathers from geese in its coats, plans to use up existing fur in its supply chain and to also launch a consumer buy-back programme in the coming months in order to rework pre-owned fur trims into new saleable items.

Claire Bass, Executive Director of Humane Society International/UK, says the organisation welcomes Canada Goose’s announcement “because it means that untold thousands of coyotes will be spared from being maimed and killed in cruel metal leg-hold traps.”

She does however believe the decision to shift to reclaimed fur “feels like a rather painful ‘long-goodbye’ in this company’s tired love affair with the fur trade.”

“A cleaner and clearer commitment to sustainability will hopefully see Canada Goose in the near future investing in the development of bio-fake-furs, and closed-loop recycling of synthetic fur materials. Nonetheless, this decision to stop killing animals for fashion is yet another nail in the coffin of the fur trade, a cruel and outdated industry still down from the punches of so many top designers and retailers adopting fur-free policies.”

The move comes as part of a Sustainable Impact Strategy outlined in the company’s first Sustainability Report. As part of the strategy, Canada Goose also announced it achieved carbon neutrality as of March 2020 through investments in strategic offsetting projects, equivalent to 200 per cent of its annual greenhouse gas emissions. The company will continue to offset at this level as it continues to transform business operations to achieve its 80 per cent emissions reduction targets by 2025. It also plans to eliminate all plastics in its facilities, including its eight factories. (Read the full report here)

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been petitioning Canada Goose to stop using fur since 2006. According to the organisation’s President Tracy Reiman, Canada Goose’s pledge might be a ploy to circumvent California’s AB 44 (signed in October) prohibiting the sale and manufacture of new fur in the state. “Today’s announcement—which may conveniently allow Canada Goose to keep selling its fur trimmed coats in California when the state’s fur ban comes into effect in 2023—will not diffuse international condemnation of the company’s extreme cruelty and does nothing to help the ducks and geese whose throats are still being slit for their feathers to be used in its down parkas,” Reiman said in a statement.

She accuses Canada Goose of attempting to “’humane wash’ its image by switching from fur taken from coyotes whom trappers have recently caught in steel traps to fur that may already be on the market, which is also a product of the cruel actions of trappers.”



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