Fur hats have been in and out of vogue. After decades of pressure from animal-rights activists, the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced its decision to replace their traditional fur hats with wool tuques. The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals (APFA) and other like-minded groups have been clamouring for years against furs of all kinds. For example, "
change.org” pressured the RCMP to “Stop using real fur on the RCMP uniform (winter hat, parka, etc.)”
The RCMP has worn muskrat-fur lined hats with earflaps for well over 100 years and for good reason. When the blizzards sweep across the plains you need to protect your ears and forehead from freezing. However, a few days ago, the RCMP threw in the towel and succumbed to the anti-fur lobby - but it did not last long. Two days later, the "
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment, announced that the Government would have none of that and that the RCMP will keep their fur hats.
I congratulated the Minister on that decision and would welcome
you doing the same.
Muskrats in North America
The muskrat (
Ondatra zibethicus) is native to North America and common on the entire continent from the high north to Mexico. In appearance, muskrats are not unlike the beaver but much smaller with a different shape of tail. Like the beaver they also build small straw/stick/mud lodges in shallow water that are approximately 2 ft. tall. In areas where the water depth is too large, they dig burrows onshore with underwater entrances.
Muskrats are not related to common rats as their name might suggest. Actually, many years ago, I was trapping them myself and owned a book describing their habitat, habits, food sources and biology. Basically muskrats are vegetarians living of soft shoots of aquatic reeds like cattail or bulrush, but they also feed on mussels and crayfish when and where easily available. In turn, muskrats are an important prey for other species like fox, raccoon, and wolves as well as large predatory birds like eagles and ospreys; I have observed it myself.
Muskrats in Europe
Prior to the discovery of the New World by Columbus muskrats were unknown in Europe. A close relative from South America named Nutria (
Myocastor coypus) was introduced to Europe, Asia and Africa and spread. However it was uncommon in most areas. That changed with an enterprising fur merchant who started to raise them in Bohemia some 100 years ago. That enterprise did not succeed; the animals escaped and have by now spread over much of Europe.
From the Netherlands to Spain and far to the east, in many areas in Europe muskrats have become a destructive pest as they undermine shorelines with burrows. Particularly in regions with sandy soils and few shore-line fortifying trees the shores of creeks and rivers can erode dramatically in a rainy season’s floods.
The number of muskrats has been controlled by governments through volunteer and semi-professional trappers, by providing bounties and similar means. However, the muskrats still thrive and keep expanding their march across Europe.
Muskrat Fur
In terms of warmth and keeping safe from the winter elements, muskrat fur is just about as good as mink, otter or beaver fur. The only difference is its cost. With the muskrat’s continent-wide prevalence here and government-supported trapping in Europe there is no shortage of muskrat fur coming on the market. In fact there is a large supply that mostly gets taken up these days by buyers from China.
In contrast to much of the western world where APFA and associates have poisoned the whole fur industry and consumers’ desire to wear any fur;
no qualms of that kind exist in Asia. There, fur has become both a welcome protection from the cold and a status symbol as well.
Besides, winter is approaching, the sea-ice in both Antarctic and Arctic has been increasing, the sunspots are getting less and NASA is predicting decades of colder than normal times.
Isn’t it about time you kept warm in some fur too?
