Hamster skins on sale for £10

A loophole in European law intended to conserve wild hamsters is being exploited by a lively export trade in their skins for clothes and fashion accessories.

Tanned hamster skins - whose uses include making pillows, jacket linings and fishing flies - are being sold by an American mail order company, whose website advertises pelts from £7.50 to £10.20 for larger, foot-long skins.

Wild hamsters have been designated an endangered species under European Union law since 1990 but Hungary and Poland are among a number of east European countries that won an exemption from the ban on hunting.



Wild field hamsters, which are slightly larger than those cherished by schoolchildren as pets, are so common in some of these countries that they are regarded by farmers as a pest.

An American company, Chichester, based in Niagara, New York state, said last week that it could supply up to 400 hamster skins to the UK.

Chichester says it has stocked hamster skins caught in the Hungarian countryside since 2003. Paul Crosby, the firm’s director, said: “They are wild skins – most often caught by gypsies. I deal directly with a small firm which does excellent quality.” He said the prime hamster hunting season is from October to November.