The following article first appeared in The Link (Concordia University, Montreal), Mar. 4, 2009, and is reproduced with the author's permission.

By Jennifer Freitas

Gripped in Serge Larivière's right hand is a white bucket. It holds a dead pigeon and leftover fish from his supper. With a muskrat fur hat on his head, Larivière walks through the forest on his 15 acres of land in Saint-Apollinaire.

Larivière throws the pigeon underneath a tree, hiding it from the six crows flying in circles overhead. He says it won't be long before a coyote hears the crows' raucous voices and makes its way towards the pigeon. However, these coyote paw prints will not be the first marks left in the snow. Further down the path, Larivière points out red fox tracks, and a Canadian lynx a few more feet away.

Forty-year-old Larivière is a fur trapper. Of Aboriginal decent, Larivière started trapping furs with his father when he was five years old. He has been walking the trap line on his own every fall since the age of 20.

"It's a labour of love," says Larivière, smiling. "It's a passion, a hobby, and a side job."

Larivière doesn't trap animals on his property. "I just can't because I feel like this is a little haven for them," he says while walking out of the forest. So, he sets his traps several kilometres away from his land.

Larivière indulges in the trade whenever he has free time, which is usually in November. Quebec's legal fur-trapping season runs from the beginning of November to the end of February.

Right now, Larivière is preparing his fur pelts for the North American Fur Auction that will be held in May.

"I'm just hoping the prices will be as good as possible," says Larivière, referencing the devastating sales of the NAFA held on Jan. 7. A NAFA report released on the same day as the auction announced that the economic crisis had lowered fur pelt sales, especially in Russia, which is one of the hungriest countries for wild fur. This economic downturn continued to have a negative effect on the NAFA held in February. Fur pelt sales did not prosper.

Herman Jansen, president and CEO of NAFA, addressed a letter on Feb. 23 to all wild fur producers. The purpose of the letter was to explain why NAFA was not able to sell all of the wild fur. In the letter Jansen wrote, "Besides the devaluation of the Russian currency as a result of the financial crisis, the Russian banks have had a lot of financial troubles. The government had to bail out many of the Russian banks and has since limited credit facilities to the consumers as well as businesses."

Last year, over 40 Russian companies showed up at the NAFA to purchase wild fur. This year, only 12 were present.

"Nobody gets rich trapping," says Larivière. "You don't do it for the money, you do it because you have a passion for nature and love for the outdoors," he says, opening the door to his garage. Once inside, all you see are fox, fisher, coyote, mink, and red squirrel fur skins hanging on the wall.

"Yet, once you've harvested an animal it is the duty of the hunter to make sure this animal is worth as much as possible," says Larivière as he runs his fingers through the fisher's smooth black hair.

For Larivière, making money selling fur skins isn't such a priority because it isn't his full-time job. He is the director general of the Cree Hunters and Trappers Income Security Board, an organization that helps maintain the participation of Cree hunters in their traditional way of life based on hunting and trapping.

He says the financial aspect of fur trapping is a lot more serious for the aboriginal trappers. "Many of them will continue harvesting fur animals [when fur prices decline] because of the meat they provide," says Larivière. "And the decreased fur prices means one less source of income for these people living in job-poor communities."

One of Larivière's duties as director general is teaching a two-day mandatory trapping course to people planning on practicing the trade. "The basis of this course is to teach people what is modern trapping, how to trap properly, and how to make sure the animal dies humanely."

Larivière says that three of the best trap companies in North America are situated in Quebec - Belisle Traps, Sauvageau Traps and Rudy Traps.

"This is the most humane trap we have," says Larivière as he pulls out the Conibear Trap from a box, a trap used for catching muskrats and mink. The Conibear Trap has a four-way trigger that closes the trap when an animal pushes the trigger from any direction, including the side. "A good trap kills the animal instantly and doesn't damage the fur," continues Larivière.

The potent odour of skunk fills the space where Larivière keeps his fur pelts drying at the back of the garage. To the far left are about two dozen skunk skins. With no big market for this fur animal, its skins value varies between five and 15 dollars. Yet, these black and white-striped fur mammals fascinate Larivière.

He has a PhD in biology from the University of Saskatchewan where he wrote his thesis on the ecology of striped skunks and how these skunks prey on duck eggs.

"I try to be careful when handling the fur pelts because any damage done is money coming out my pocket," says the skunk expert as he turns a coyote fur pelt inside out and slides it back onto the rectangular board for the second stage of drying.

The process, from trapping an animal to drying it, takes roughly eight to 10 days. Once the animal is caught, you make two cuts behind its legs and pull the hide out like a glove. You then take a scraper and scrape off all of the fat.

Larivière never throws away the fat; he instead puts it into his bucket to feed the other animals roaming on his land. He likes to call this "recycling." You then proceed to the two stages of drying. When the drying is finished, Larivière says you take the hide off the board, and depending on the animal, sell the fur pelt either leather side out or fur side out.

"This is usually a job for my kids," says Larivière as he takes a brush and starts brushing the coyote's fur.

Larivière is husband to 38-year-old Nancy Dion, who accompanies him a few days on the trap line, and father to four children - Cassandre, Véronique, Nathan, and Kassiopée - all under the age of 13.

Cassandre, who is 12, has been helping her dad prepare animal skins since she was eight years old. "Handling fur is like arts and crafts, so I like to do that," she says.

Although Larivière's two eldest daughters already know how to skin muskrats, he doesn't expect them to become fur trappers in the future.

"I want them to at least grow up understanding that the sustainable use of renewable natural resources is one of the best ways to help the environment and appreciate nature," he says.

Larivière mentions that when it comes to trapping the wild animals, trappers will seek the most abundant populations and only take a percentage of them. "If you don't trap, you're not going to have more animals because nature will come in and clean it up itself."

Larivière believes that animal welfare is a human concept and that when nature kills an animal, there's no welfare involved. "The wolves start eating the moose before it is dead, whereas we trappers make sure the animal is dead [before we start skinning it]."

Larivière says trapping animals is important because it lessens the problems of over-abundance and rabies. "The worst thing that could happen is to find diseased animals on your trap line," says Larivière. He's making reference to the rabies virus detected in 2006 in south-western Quebec along the Vermont border.

James Grant, a Biology professor at Concordia University, agrees with Larivière that there needs to be management in animal populations - to a certain extent.

"Some populations, we would probably benefit from harvesting them. Most populations probably don't need to be harvested, but probably can be harvested if done humanely and responsibly," said Grant.

Grant says the populations that do need controlling are invasive animals, pest species, and disease-carrying animals. However, he does not worry about the fur animal population because they are in good hands.

"Most of the populations being trapped aren't endangered because these trappers do know what they are doing," said Grant. "It's like they are farming the wildlife; so it is in their interest not to over harvest," continued Grant.

Besides monetary profits, Grant points out environmental benefits to harvesting.

"You think about a Native person harvesting a fur pelt and wearing it rather than buying something at Wal-Mart, which is nylon and has a chemical, ecological and energy footprint to it," said Grant.

Larivière supports the slogan "Fur Is Green," an advertising campaign put out over a year ago by the Fur Council of Canada. This campaign highlights how fur is renewable, durable, recyclable, biodegradable, and resource efficient. But more importantly, that this trade respects the land, the animals, people and cultures.

Alan Herscovici is the vice-president of the Fur Council of Canada and the author of Second Nature: The Animal Rights Controversy. He says people like Larivière, whom he meets with regularly at Fur Council of Canada meetings, are doing a very important job for the animals and for society, yet people tend not to acknowledge that.

"It is very nice to say we love nature, but animal rights are a fantasy because animals do die," says Herscovici. He claims that one of the main reasons why people are not aware of the benefits of harvesting fur is that trappers are away from the city and all the media buzz, so people don't get to hear their side of the story.

"Animal rights activists are in the city close to the media and do a street demonstration just in time for the news," says Herscovici, "but the trappers are out in the bush away from all the media."

Larivière agrees. "If trappers are guilty of anything, it's remaining quiet for too long," says Larivière. "We're not out there to kill the animals, we're out there to harvest the fur."

Larivière always makes sure to respect the environment he's taking from and to do whatever he can to support the animal life.

"The whole idea of fur trapping is you take from nature, but you also have to give back to nature," he states. "You can't just take, take, take, it doesn't work that way."

Larivière will keep an eye out for more paw prints in the melting snow and continue to leave food for his furry friends in the forest. He wants to make sure they stay healthy and produce lots of offspring, that way it ensures fur pelts for next year.