The earliest records of breeding mink for fur in North America were in the 1860s. In Canada, foxes were first raised on farms for fur in Prince Edward Island in 1895. By 1913, PEI had 277 fox farms and then by 1923, there were 448. Fur farming was originally found primarily in the Maritimes, but eventually spread to Ontario and Quebec. Today, fur farms can be found in most provinces (International Fur Trade Federation, 2011).

In 2012, according to Statistics Canada, Canadian fur farms saw 8,540 fox and 2,971,200 mink born. Of that number, 8,120 foxes and 2,804,800 mink were killed and their pelts harvested. However nearly 200,000 animals in the fur farm industry were later listed as escaped or died without pelting.