The EU fur import regulations are yet another attack on our people from imperialists, says Thomas Cone, vice-president of the Cree Indian Trappers’ Association to the High North News. Cone lives in a small village in the north of Quebec.

It is a very disturbing piece of legislation, very worrisome, he says. He believes that the animal rights lobby is behind it. I should wish that they (the EU) would have listened to our story first. It is our lives that are affected. This is cultural genocide, they will kill our traditional lifestyle.

The EU market represents 75% of the wild animal fur market and the 13 species on the EU list are the primary species for trapping, Cone stresses. Therefore, the EU regulations will mean loss of income. We have always, through centuries, been attached to the land. Now, we will not be able to afford to go out there. We will be displaced from the land, the link will be cut off. Right now most of my neighbours are out there in the bush trapping.

Cone says that they are working to find the exact figures, but that at least 50,000 Indian people are dependent on trapping.