China’s new economic class has made them the biggest fur importer in the world, and increasingly Canada’s biggest export, much to the dismay of animal rights activists, environmentalists and fur-bearing creatures.

Canadian fur exports have almost tripled from 2009 to 2013. China in particular has an increasing demand for the product, which is reflected in a 392 per cent surge from the same time period.

Alan Herscovici, the executive vice-president of the Fur Council of Canada, explains the growth in Chinese imports of Canadian fur happens for two reasons. The first being that China has a booming middle and upper class, which creates a market for traditional luxury products. They are now the largest buyer of fur internationally. The second reason is their lower cost of labour. In many cases, raw fur is imported in China, manufactured into fur products, redistributed and re-exported.

Adrian Nelson is the director of communications from the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals. This is a non-profit organization based out of Vancouver. They focus on protecting animals used for fur in Canada. He explains that when fur products are re-imported back to Canada, they return mostly as accessories on clothing. “Most comes back as fur trim,” he says, “Such as coyotes on collars and rabbits on boots.”

According to the Fur Council of Canada, “400 top designer collections” used fur in 2013.

The Fur Institute of Canada states that Canada’s fur trade contributes more than $800 million to the economy yearly. They report 85 per cent of the fur obtained in the global fur trade comes from domesticated and farmed sources which mostly focus on mink and fox furs.  The most important fur markets are China, Hong Kong, Russia, Ukraine, the US and various European countries such as Greece, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK.

The institute says trapping in Canada happens in every municipality and the most common targets are muskrat, beaver, marten and even squirrel and raccoon.

Both fur advocacy groups boast humane trapping methods and environmental sustainability.

Both groups promote the “Fur is Green” website created by the Fur Council which explains that fur is a renewable, recyclable, biodegradable and environmentally friendly product.

The APFA says that each year 2.5 million animals are raised for fur in fur farms and 700,000 animals are trapped annually in Canada.

Nelson explains there are numerous reasons why fur is not a “green” resource. “Anytime you are taking animals out of an ecosystem you are really making things off balance…we really get yo-yo effect.” This happens when part of an animal population is lost, there can be a surplus of other animals they would have usually preyed on.

A major environmental danger of fur trapping is the manure run-off from the farms, which led to water contamination in Nova Scotia over the past few years.

“Over half of the mink farms in Canada are in Nova Scotia,” says Herscovici.

In 2011, the David Suzuki Foundation took action to expose and demand regulation for mink farming in Nova Scotia. This was because for years the manure, carcasses and waste feed seeped into local waterways – increasingly polluting them. This created blue-green algae in the water, which made it dangerous to animals and humans.

Another environmental factor is the list of toxic chemicals used in fur production, which includes formaldehyde, chromium and naphthalene that are bad for the environment and can be considered carcinogenic to humans.

“It’s very interesting how something can be very long lasting and compostable at the same time…we’re talking about garments that have been chemically processed to not rot away,” says Nelson.

As for the fur boom, it’s uncertain if the trend will continue.

“The fur industry loves to say that it’s making a big comeback because prices are rising. It’s a fashion, and it will fade like any other fashion.”