The Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards was signed by Canada, the European Community, and the Russian Federation in 1999, but only came into force in Canada at the start of its latest trapping season in October 2007.

The pact requires trappers to use restraining traps that minimize injuries to animals, and killing traps that dispatch prey as quickly as possible.

"The biggest change in the design of killing traps is their force. They're much more powerful and more precise, targeting the neck and ribcage of animals," said Guy Sauvageau, a trap maker in Quebec.

"Rather than trying them out in the field like in the past, traps nowadays must be approved before reaching the market," he said.

The humane trapping accord is the result of pressure brought on fur traders to update their trapping methods in the 1990s by the European Union, along with animal rights activists led by French movie star Brigitte Bardot.

"Countries that exported fur to the EU had a choice: abolish steel jaw traps, or use traps that conform to international humane trapping standards," said Pierre Canac-Marquis, a fur manager for Quebec province's wildlife department.

Steel jaw traps snap close on the victim's limbs, and the animal dies slowly of starvation, dehydration or infection unless the traps are checked regularly.

"Previously, there were no international standards," he told AFP. Principal pelt producers in Canada, Russia and the United States agreed to the European proposal for the greater well-being of trapped animals.

Manufacturers must now prove that in 80 percent of cases small animals like martens (sable) would lose consciousness within two minutes of their capture, while beavers, wolves, coyotes and lynx can last up to five minutes.

Stephen Harris, a biology professor at Bristol University in England who humanely traps research animals, was not impressed.

"The standards are not very high," he said in a telephone interview. "Twenty percent of them will take much longer than five minutes to die and that is still an unacceptable standard.

"If we cannot achieve a humane standard, we should not (trap for fur)."

For trap makers the new rules have been a commercial boon.

"Trap sales exploded over the past two years," said trap maker Benoit Belisle. "The market was already lucrative before the agreement, but sales have since skyrocketed because trappers are forced to upgrade their old traps."

Trapping in Europe serves mostly to control wild animal populations, while in North America it is done primarily by fur traders.

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