Canada Ping!
Posted on 06/29/2013 6:00:22 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
“I am happy,” Eugen announces, in an Austrian accent betraying his Vancouver-by-way-of-Vienna roots. “I have a plate of chops. Now, go ahead, ask me anything you want to know about the fur business.”
What I want to know, what every fur buyer at Grannittis restaurant wants to know is: how much? How much will the top polar bear skin fetch at the following day’s wild fur auction at Fur Harvesters Auction house in North Bay, Ont., one of the few places, anywhere on the planet, where an interested party can shop for a Canadian polar bear pelt?
Eugen is a master taxidermist. He and Edith, his sweet-voiced, red rouge and lipstick-wearing wife of 54 years, own Capilano Furs & Taxidermy Studios in North Vancouver. They have been in business since 1956.
“I have a Chinese client looking for two mounted bears,” Eugen says. (Translation: He has a Chinese client looking for two polar bear skins to be stuffed, stitched back together and posed, presumably fiercely, on pedestals for display.)
“I think we could see a skin sell for $12,000, maybe $14,000, but no more than that.”
Bob Desbiens, a trapper and retired North Bay elementary school principal seated to Edith’s left, offers his prediction: $20,000.
“$20,000?” Eugen scoffs. “That’s crazy.”
It is crazy. But China is crazy, crazy for Canadian polar bear furs — the rarest gems in a booming international fur trade — and crazier still for wild northern fur of every description: marten, mink, otter, lynx, silver fox, red fox, Arctic fox, beaver — even the wily raccoon.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
Canada Ping!
I used to trap a lot of muskrats. Apparently muskrat is passed off as rabbit most of the time.
I wouldn’t mind a little Canadian beaver myself.
Great poster. Where can I see it big enough to read?
I am as much of a free market person as anyone. That being said, fur looks better on the creature God put it originally.
I'm inclined to agree.although I don't support efforts to outlaw the fur trade...or to boycott it...I'd never buy fur,regardless of how much I might be worth.I don't buy cigarettes either but I'd oppose them being outlawed and oppose the outrageous taxes currently being placed on them.
Because this thread would not be complete without it.
China is a fresh market of People that have not been wimpified by liberalism.
The Chinese also value the gallbladder of the black bear for some “ancient Chinese medication” or some such nonsense and in some places they've found dead black bears rotting away, fur and all, just missing their gallbladders. They don't care about anything accept what they want. (Obviously a generalization but let them exploit a resource and they will to the max.)
We used to get paid for trapping muskrats because they’re a nuisance along shorelines. The traps we used killed them humanely and quickly plus didn’t harm the hide. The fur trader we sold them to ate the meat and fed it to his dogs.
The problem with China’s market is, it is closed.
We are competing with an open system, against China’s which is closed.
China just passed America as the world’s biggest exporter.
China makes massive amounts of the things we buy in America, in our stores.
China is growing constantly.
While I understand supporting China on one hand, the fact is currently China is gaining on us. Quickly.
We need to push back.
We need balanced trade.
What we have now, is giving away the farm
Piss on the Chinese and piss on the Canadian fur traders. The poaching of polar bears can’t be far behind.
I agree.
Step off Eh! There’s only aboot enough Canadian Beaver for Canadians, Eh!
Porar Bear
Grizzery Bear
Chinkchirra
Sirver Fox
Brack Bear
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