Canada Goose wants to open a new flagship store in Edinburgh... and sell recycled fur?
Bastion of highstreet horror Canada Goose is planning to open a new flagship store in the Scottish capital, drawing fresh condemnation from animal rights groups for their abhorrent use of coyote fur and goose down in their trendy parka jackets. We take a fresh look at everything wrong about Canada Goose, including their pledge to use ‘reclaimed’ fur from next year.
Canada Goose. The two words that bring the blood of every animal rights campaigner to the boil. The apparent rise in popularity of Canada Goose’s trademark parkas, with their hoods trimmed with coyote fur and jackets stuffed with goose down, seems to have been halted only by the pandemic. Prior to covid-19 shutting down all non-essential shops, a host of celebrity endorsements - including Drake, Marc Jacobs and Kate Upton - helped Canada Goose achieve significant growth reporting revenues of 830.5 million Canadian dollars in 2019, up from 591.2 million the previous year, according to the New York Times.
Now Canada Goose looks to be readying itself for the end of lockdown, at least in Scotland, with the opening of a new flagship store in the capital, Edinburgh. PETA, a long-time nemesis of the Toronto-based coyote killers, have been quick to go on the offensive. Speaking to Edinburgh Live today, PETA UK spokesperson Jennifer White first reminded Edinburgh locals that coyotes are members of the canine family alongside dogs, and then added:
“While every park is filled with 'man’s best friend', many would be horrified to hear that soon people won’t just be walking canines in Edinburgh, but could be wearing them too.
"Canada Goose is the shame of the fashion industry - the company lines its hoods with the fur of coyotes who are caught in barbaric steel traps, in which they can suffer for days with broken bones and bleeding wounds before a trapper returns to shoot or bludgeon them to death or kill them in some other horrific way.”
This is of course not the first time Canada Goose has received this sort of criticism in the UK or in other countries. Before lockdown, protests were taking place outside the brand’s flagship London store almost every weekend since its opening in 2016. The message from protestors has always sought to expose the brand’s use of coyote fur and goose down for what it is - the product of suffering and exploitation - and to educate the public on what they are paying for in the name of fashion.
Canada Goose’s answer to all this has been to release various statements about its commitment to sustainability while also backtracking on rather dubious claims concerning coyote and goose welfare. In 2019, the New York Post reported several changes to the Canada Goose website and marketing materials following investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, looking into allegations of false advertising:
Stealthy fixes include the scrubbing of promises that Canada Goose — which has long filled its $900 jackets with goose down and trims the hoods with coyote fur — only uses coyotes from overpopulated areas where they attack “pets and sometimes even people,” documents show.
Canada Goose likewise removed from its site a promotional “down traceability” video. The segment, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, had featured an ex-supplier whose workers were later caught on camera roughly grabbing geese by their necks, cramming them into cramped cages and even stepping on them as they piled up in corners trying to flee.
Today, on the Canada Goose website one can find its Sustainably Sourced pledge in which, among other things, it claims to not “condone any willful mistreatment, neglect, or acts that maliciously cause animals undue suffering”. Despite this, Canada Goose rather stoically, or stubbornly, stands by its use of both fur and down. In the case of the stolen skin of canines, Canada Goose states that it provides “functionality in extreme environments and is an integral feature of authentic Arctic outerwear”, ignoring the fact that most people who buy Canada Goose have no intention of ever setting foot anywhere near the Earth’s northern polar region.
Canada Goose claims to be a “function-first company”, but doesn’t mind selling to people who value fashion above all and taking advantage of celebrity endorsements to perpetuate lifestyle attainment fallacies. Kate Upton, posing in Canada Goose in a bikini on the cover of Sports Illustrated, at that moment was really benefiting from the heat retaining properties of fur.
Among the company’s sustainability and welfare pledges includes a commitment to only use wild fur from North American suppliers and never from fur farms. If not from fur farms, then the only source of wild coyote fur is from trappers. Even if they are “regulated by state, provincial and federal standards”, traps still cause pain and suffering to coyotes, the devices holding on to their legs for many hours (C/W: PETA link contains graphic imagery). In fact, the traps that are regulated and approved for use in North America have been banned for use in many other countries.
According to Newsweek in its 2019 article Are Canada Goose Jackets inhumane? The Controversy Explained:
The AIHTS specifies that a trap must be shown not to cause harm in at least 80 percent of coyotes. The policy's definition of harm encompases everything from "excessive immobility and unresponsiveness" to amputation and even death. Of course, the coyote is ultimately killed and skinned, but the intended goal is to minimize suffering while in the trap.
The current list of coyote traps approved by the AIHTS include the Belisle Foot Snare, which clamps down on the leg, rather than dig in with sharp "teeth." An additional cable ties the animal down and immobilizes it without injury. Other traps, like the Duke No. 3 Rubber Jaws, use rubber casings on the clamps, which some consider to be more humane.
While Canada has approved both of these traps, they are banned in dozens of countries, including the whole of the EU. A proposal to ban fur from countries using leg-hold traps claimed they "close tightly upon one or more of the animal's limbs and, in doing so, often breaks bones and lacerates the skin."
Newsweek points out a great many flaws in Canada Goose’s welfare pledge, with numerous ways in which coyotes can still be subjected to terrible treatment at the hands of apparently regulated suppliers.
This brings us to Canada Goose’s final bold claim - that they will stop buying new fur from trappers from 2022 and instead buy back fur from wearers of its parkas, reclaiming the skin to use on new jackets. It certainly made headlines when announced in April last year, but as the Humane Society rightly points out, while it would constitute a serious loss in business for many trappers it is only a partial victory for animals.
PJ Smith, director of fashion policy at the Humane Society of the United States, said:
“Switching to ‘reclaimed fur’ feels like an unnecessarily long-goodbye for this company’s outdated relationship with fur; ultimately their future must be fur-free. We urge Canada Goose to make a cleaner and clearer commitment to sustainability by switching to bio-fake-furs, and closed-loop recycling of faux fur materials. We hope in the near future to see Canada Goose following the vast majority of top designers in cutting all ties with cruel and outdated fur.”
Even with all the questions surrounding how Canada Goose will certify fur as reclaimed and how soon it will be implemented, recycling fur may tick some ‘zero waste’ sustainability boxes but it isn’t the answer. Buying second-hand leather from the local goodwill or charity shop is one grey area of sustainability versus ethical veganism, but for Canada Goose to continue to place fur on a pedestal does nothing to prevent the promotion of fur, skin and other animal-derived materials as fashion ideals. They know people want fur for the way it looks, not the way it functions, and that lack of necessity makes it intrinsically unethical.
Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager at Surge.
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