Hunters who use to donate their animal hides to their local Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation will have to find a new way to dispose of them. SWF, is cancelling their Hide Collection Program for the 2018 season.

Darren Newberry is the Habitat Trust Land Coordinator for the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation. "We didn't want to cancel the program but we were informed by our buyer, we have a buyer that travels around the province to gather the hides, that their market dried up."

Newberry went on to say the buyers are probably looking at other options, rather than their animal hides, "Most of them got shipped over seas and used as leather products and things like that. There's more options for leather, so they didn't have to buy these moose or elk hides anymore."

photo: Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation The program ran for nearly 40 years and was quite profitable for the organization. "It's put several thousand dollars into the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation." Newberry noted that money was always put towards a good cause, "We took the money and used it to purchase habitat land across the province. It generated lots of money and we're sad to see it go."

Hunters will now have to dispose of animal hides at a permitted landfill.

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