Coat manufacturers like Canada Goose and knockoff brands alike are helping to drive up the price of coyote pelts- going for nearly 40 percent more per pelt than four years ago, the Associated Press reports.
“Canada Goose is always the name that people relate to, but there are so many other brands that make similar coats,” Mark Downey, CEO of Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. of North Bay, Ontario, told the AP. “Basically, it’s just a coyote trim ruff that goes around the hood of all those kinds of coats.”
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John Hughes, a fur buyer in Montana, handles around 10,000 coyotes a year and pays trappers an average of $75 to $105 per pelt, sometimes as much as $120 for a western coyote.
“The coyotes that we have here in Montana are probably the best coyotes in the world for trim,” Hughes said. “They’re heavy, so the hair stands up for the trim, and they’re pale.”
Experts in the fur industry say the boom began in 2013 when a Canada Goose parka was worn by supermodel Kate Upton on the cover of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The parkas go for more than $1000 dollars each.
As demand increases for quality coyote fur, western coyote numbers are decreasing (their fur is considered better quality) and trappers are left to sell eastern coyote pelts that go for nearly half the price of their softer-feeling brother to the west.
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