Canada Trappers Struggle to Keep Fur Trade Alive : Northwest Territories: Depressed prices and anti-fur protests have hurt a business plied by many Eskimos and Indians.

Trapper Sandy Stefannson proudly displays the lush pelts of a lynx and fox he caught in the Arctic wilderness and remembers when furs like these would have brought him top dollar.

Those days, he says, are long gone. Stefannson, like other native Indian and Eskimo trappers in Canada’s north, is struggling to survive in the face of depressed fur prices and anti-fur protests by animal rights groups.

“In the last few years, fur prices go down and down. . . . Nobody wants to buy fur coats no more,” said Hugh Rogers, Stefannson’s neighbor and fellow trapper.

Trappers fear they may become extinct in northern Canada, one of the birthplaces of the modern fur trade and source of some of the world’s most prized wild furs.

The Northwest Territories’ vast open expanses make it a haven for fur-bearing animals like mink, marten, lynx and fox. The Arctic climate prompts animals to grow thick coats, and its furs are considered to be among the finest in the world.

Trapping animals for their fur and meat was traditionally part of native culture, but the commercial fur trade dates from the 17th Century when Europeans explored much of North America in search of fur.

The value of Canada’s fur sales fell 20.5% to $36.1 million in Canadian dollars in 1993, the latest year for which figures are available, while the value of wild pelts dropped 63%, the government statistics agency reported.

Those numbers are grim news for the estimated 2,000 to 4,500 full-time trappers who live in Canada’s Northwest Territories--a barren region the size of India. Across Canada, the industry says about 100,000 jobs depend on fur.

Trappers may be worried but the downturn cheers anti-fur activists, who brand wearing fur coats as inhumane and frivolous.

“There is now way to humanely trap a fur. Fur is acknowledged as cruel and the industry is using native people as a public relations tool to defend the whole business,” Ainslie Willock, director of the Animal Alliance of Canada, said.

There is disagreement over the degree to which the current crisis results from highly publicized protests against the wearing of fur coats. But in the Northwest Territories, trappers clearly see the animal-rights movement as the enemy.

“They paint a picture that this is a cruel, horrible activity and people envision long trails of blood. But it’s not that way at all,” said Ian Ross, who heads the fur management program for the Northwest Territories government.

In an attempt to counter negative publicity about fur, natives and the Canadian government are putting on a public relations blitz. Their effort is focused on Europe, which accounts for about three-quarters of Canada’s fur exports.

Officials have lobbied European capitals in anticipation of a new European Union law that bans fur imports from countries that still use the leghold trap or have not adopted so-called humane trapping methods. The rule was due to come into effect this month but was delayed for a year.

Canada is also highlighting the millions it has spent to research more humane trapping methods and to provide trappers with better traps.

“We’re seeing a positive response. People are fed up with hearing the animal rights agenda,” said Alison Beal, executive director of the pro-industry Fur Institute.

The industry says animals are killed humanely and that fur is environmentally friendly, unlike fake fur which often is made from petrochemicals. In a new brochure, consumers are urged to “be proud to wear your fur.”

The campaign is also bringing a new politically correct language to trapping. “We don’t call them trappers anymore; we call them ‘harvesters,’ ” Ross said.