Fur Industry

The fur industry is a worldwide trade in the acquisition and sale of animal fur, historically centered on the furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammals since a world fur market first formed in the early modern period. Major historical trading companies included the Hudson Bay Company and the American Fur Company. Today the industry continues through fur farms and regulated trapping, with roughly 60,000 trappers active in Canada and 176,573 in the United States, though it faces sustained opposition from animal rights campaigners and competition from synthetic alternatives in clothing.