The International Fur Trade Federation found that around 15 percent of fur comes from wild animals such as beavers, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and muskrats, as opposed to farmed. Labels often don’t specify if a piece is made from wild fur, but for those after free-range fur, the best bet is to look for skins of animals from Canada, the USA, and Russia, where most wild pelts come from. Many North Americans are already supporting the wild-fur trade: It’s wild-coyote fur that lines the hoods of those Canada Goose parkas currently stampeding New York City’s sidewalks.
Just as eating invasive fish has become a priority among environmentalists in the food world, using the fur of invasive animals could be a good way to make use of animals killed to protect fragile ecosystems. For a species to be considered invasive, it must be harmful to the environment and be non-native. In the coastal United States, the nutria—a large, semi-aquatic rodent with webbed feet, long tails, and carrot-colored teeth—is both.
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