Colton Morris (28 years old) knelt on the concrete floor of a warehouse in an Ohio rural area to carefully comb a pile of coyote skins with a metal brush before auctioning them.The morning was sunny but fresh, and about 150 buyers and vendors approached the event in the small town of Kidron, located almost 100 kilometers southwest of Cleveland.For sale there were mink, mapache, fox and beaver.But the greatest attraction was the coyotes.

Coyote's skin trade is booming, mostly driven in the United States by the parkas of the Canada Goose brand, and does not show signs of languishing.The brand became famous when the model and actress Kate Upton posed with a white jacket for the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2013. The company also gave jackets to the celebrities of the Sunday festival and continues to grow;Last year he entered the market in China.The Parka emblem of navy blue, with hood with coyote skin and a patch of the Arctic Circle in the sleeve, has become a controversial fashion article sold for 1,056 euros."That product is probably the one promoted by the Coyote market at this time," said Dave Linkhart, of the National Tramperos Association.

While he kept combing his coyote skins, Colton Morris smiled at a question about cruelty towards wild animals for stylistic purposes."People do not understand that this is an animal like sheep, cows or chickens, and use them as a renewable resource," he says.

He uses traps with springs that catch the legs of the coyotes.Every day he checked the traps and the catches trapped he kills them in a shot."In general, the coyotes we trace are poorly healthy, because the population has grown a lot. The way we put an end to their suffering is actually very compassionate," he argues.

Morris works as a nurse in the emergency room of a hospital in southern Ohio.Coyotes hunting, which he performs in the forests of the region, is a hobby that gives him an extra income.

The auction was done quickly and Morris left with a net profit of 880 euros for its 60 skins, after paying a commission and buying the traps."I do this since I am 12 years old. I love the challenge. I deal with animals with respect and that effort gives me an extra money," he says.

Tramperos such as Morris are also hired by associations of owners, farmers and landowners to kill coyotes, in an attempt to protect the pets of the family or cattle from this common predator.Until recently, Coyote's skin did not have much value.But the popularity of Canada Goose has changed things.

The skin of a coyote in the east of the United States usually auctioned for an amount of between 5 and 40 dollars.Prices vary according to the quality of the skin, the offer and the amount of traps that have increased, which has increased since this material became fashionable.In the west of the country, especially in states such as Montana, the most silky and clear skins can be easily auctioned by double or triple value than those of Coyotes del Este.It is estimated that the prices of this year's auctions have been 25% higher than last year and 40% higher than four years ago.

"Los coyotes están de moda", asegura John Hughes, comprador de Pieles J&M en Roundup, Montana. "Y es gracias al mercado de la tapicería". Linkhart añade: "Ahora que estas pieles tienen cierto valor, se están cosechando".

Animal rights activists fervently criticize this trade and do not agree with the argument that traffickers are helping to control the population of wild coyotes.

"That is a lie," says Brooks Fahy of defense of the predator, a group that struggles for a "peaceful coexistence" between US humans and wild animals.On his website he remembers his followers that Navajos considered the coyotes "the dogs of God."

"The skin is used exclusively for fashion items. It is not necessary," Brooks continues."If Canada Goose was an honest brand, I would put a label on the jackets with the photo of a coyote with the leg or neck trapped in a trap."

Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has been called to boycott the products of Canada Goose, in defense of the geese of those who take out the feathers and coyotes they use by their skins.The organization condemns the commercial chain composed of traffickers, intermediaries and manufacturers, until you reach the public that consumes these products.

But the arguments fall in a broken bag.Canada Goose has just reported that its benefits of the third four-month period of the 2018-19 period have been 50% higher than those of the same period of the previous period and amount to 264 million euros.The company's executive director, Dani Reiss, said in a statement that this would be another year of "impressive results" for the company, according to a commercial report last month.

During the polar wave that froze New York before spring, modern and wealthy young people took the jackets throughout the city.Canada Goose sells jackets without skin hood, but coyote hoods are very popular.

Garrison Gibbons, a young man of just over 20 years of age who travels in the New York Metro with his new parka, explains that he bought it impulsively with money he earned by betting and who considers her a "luxury garment."Gibbons, who works in Human Resources said that when he moved to New York from his Mississippi's Mississippi he needed garments for the cold, although he admitted that the jacket "is definitely a status symbol."

"Having grown up in the south, I opposed the hunt. I grew up being an animal defender and was against cruelty towards animals. But when I moved to the city and I had to face the cold ... in the end I had to overcome it", said.

Meanwhile, in a Chick-Fil-A restaurant in downtown Manhattan, the twenty-one Andrea Parker is putting the jacket while asking for the letter and compares to wear a garment with eating chicken or meat.

He shrugs."I guess I feel it is the same as eating animal meat or carrying leather garments. It's the same," she says.