Ontario wildlife possession and fur-trade rules updated: online Registry replaced, record-keeping extended, and beaver castoreum trade added

Plain-language summary · AI-assisted

The Ministry of Natural Resources has replaced the requirement to use its online Registry when reporting possession of wildlife carcasses and pelts. People who acquire a bear, deer, elk, moose, raptor or furbearing mammal carcass, or who buy a pelt for personal use, must now submit a notice of possession in whatever format the Ministry establishes, and keep the Ministry's confirmation for as long as they hold the item. The former obligations to update contact information on the Registry within 10 business days and to submit a Registry-based form have been removed. Fur dealers must now keep their activity records for five years after licence expiry (up from two) and make them available to the Ministry on request; the previous requirement to file a copy with the district manager within 14 days of licence expiry is gone. Buying and selling untreated beaver castoreum is now expressly permitted: licensed fur dealers may buy and sell it, and any person may buy it from a fur dealer, with invoicing rules applying. Throughout the regulation, gendered pronouns have been replaced with gender-neutral language.

Who this affects
fur dealers and pelt buyers · hunters and trappers possessing wildlife carcasses or pelts · taxidermists · people buying pelts or hides for personal use · non-resident hunters exporting game from Ontario