The Empress Hotel—and the entire Fairmont chain—is going fur-free, much to the satisfaction of a local animal rights group that has been calling for the policy changes.

“All Fairmont hotels must cease sourcing, selling, or promoting real animal fur products by Dec. 31, 2025, at the latest,” the company said in a statement. 

“This includes but is not limited to fur derived from angora, fox, chinchilla, mink, rabbit, squirrel, coyote, and raccoon.”

Karin Nelson, a Saanich resident, started two petitions that appear to have been pivotal in helping force the policy change. 

“Oh, it feels fantastic,” she tells Capital Daily. 

“You know, this is the lowest of the low-hanging fruit, that we can stop killing animals simply for a fashion statement and for self-adornment.”

Nelson organized a paper petition that garnered 700+ signatures, and last August, she launched an online one that secured 7,790 John Hancocks. And for the past three years, fellow members of the Victoria chapter of Direct Action Everywhere staged monthly protests by the Empress and wrote chalk messages on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. 

But it may have been a push from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) that solidified the Fairmont’s change in direction. 

“As an escalation, we thought, ‘I wonder if PETA would be interested in getting involved,’” Nelson says.

“So I talked to my contact there, and apparently they must have sent a letter, because you know, a few weeks ago, PETA put out a press release.”

“After hearing from PETA that animals are electrocuted, suffocated, and even skinned alive in the fur industry, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts—which runs more than 70 luxury properties worldwide—has banned the sale of fur in Fairmont-managed retail stores, the release, dated July 30, said.

“Kind shoppers have no interest in wearing bits and pieces of fur that were stolen from suffering animals,” said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the few retailers still selling fur to follow Fairmont’s compassionate example and pledge to go fur-free.”

Initially, Nelson and her group were targeting the Empress, where three shops that take rental space sell fur or exotic skins: Collections by 5th Avenue, London Towne Boutique, and Designers International—and they were pleasantly surprised to learn it was a company-wide edict. 

Nelson said that five of the 20 Fairmont properties across Canada still sell real animal fur. It was not immediately clear how many continue to sell these garments, typically made of fox, chinchilla, and fur from the angora rabbit. A request to update whether the stores have stopped selling the merchandise was not returned in time for this publication. 

“There are so many other options, and this is one way that we can spare animals,” said Nelson, pointing to the cruelty to which some of these animals are subjected.

“In fur farms, the animals are oftentimes living on wire,” Nelson says. “Their feet are on wire cages because they don't want to have to clean pens, and they are kept outside,”  she says.

“They want the fur thick, so [the animals] are kept in the cold, and they suffer open wounds; they cannibalize one another.”

In 2021, the BC government banned mink farming—“due to the public-health risks associated with COVID-19”—and all mink farming operations in the province were forced to shut down by the beginning of this year.

But the farming of other fur-bearing animals, including fox and chinchilla, is still legal.

“Fur farming is an industry that confines wild animals in small cages before they are killed for their fur,” the BCSPCA says in a release dated Aug. 5. 

“The fur pelts are mainly sold to international markets for the luxury fashion industry.”