Welcome to Fur-Bearer Defenders

(To navigate this site, first select a category among the circles above. 

Then each of those pages has more subject links down the left.)

Campaign and Project Highlights

  • Cruelty is NOT Green  - The fur trade's latest gimmick to divert attention from the cruelty of fur production - to claim fur as a "green" product.

    For more campaign topics, click on our "hot topics" button on the top bar menu.

 Silent Screams: 

Dogs and Cats of the Fur Trade

 

North America's Fur-Bearing Animals Need Protection! -
Wolf
Lynx
Fox
Raccoon
River Otter
Beaver
Fisher
Mink
Coyote
Muskrat
Weasel
Badger
Marten
Skunk
Wolverine
Black Bear
Bobcat
Squirrel

(To see an artist's portrayal of each of these animals, click here. Many thanks to Ze')

About Fur-Bearer Defenders

Fur-Bearer Defenders (Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals) is a non-profit society working to stop trapping cruelty and protect fur-bearing animals.  Our society registration number is S-4222.  (We are not a federally registered charitable organization due to our strong animal advocacy work).

We have specialized in the trapping cruelty issue since our inception in 1944, and have earned a solid reputation, providing information and resources to the media, government, activists, and the public. 

Fur-Bearer Defenders (previously known as The Fur-Bearers) has members throughout the world, and is managed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Two Board members, George and Bunty Clements, have been with the Association and dedicating their lives to the cause for over 30 years.  We are completely funded by donations and memberships of caring individuals.

Fur-Bearer Defenders has been widely recognized for our unique and compelling videos on trapping, and our collection of photographs of animals alive and struggling in traps. 

In the early 1980’s, Fur-Bearer Defenders was key in launching a massive campaign to expose trapping cruelty in Europe. We made several trips to Europe, demonstrating traps and showing never before seen cruel trapping footage and photos to the public and government officials in the then 15-country European Union (EU). 

This exposure had a tremendous impact. The EU Parliament passed a regulation banning all fur imports coming from countries still using the cruel Leg-Hold trap. Canada’s fur trade interests thwarted the ban, but our fur exports to the EU dramatically fell - from 85% to 15%, due to changed attitudes towards fur.

In the last twenty-five years or so we have also seen an unparalleled success here at home. In 1980, 32 million animals were trapped across North America. It has since plummeted to 3-4 million (approximately one million of that in Canada).

The number continues to decline as more and more people learn about today’s traps, and decide to say “no” to the cruelty and thus “no” to fur.

We hope that this website will provide information, resources, and inspiration to individuals world wide, to get involved, or become further involved, in helping  fur-bearing animals and stopping this unnecessary cruelty.   

Graphic/Sad Photos Notice

Please be aware that some real, graphic photos of animals in traps are shown in some sections of Fur-Bearer Defenders' website.  They are included as they show the kind of cruelty Fur-Bearer Defenders is trying to stop.  However, if you wish to avoid them, they are on the following pages:

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