Petit Nord’s ethical basis 

In the following we describe the ethical foundation of our company. We focus on the welfare of the animals whose fur or hides we use for our products; on the working conditions of the people who make our products; and on the purity of the materials we use.

Seal skin products

The use of seal skin and fur has become a controversial subject around the world because of the Canadian seal hunters’ undue methods of hunting. Petit Nord wishes strongly to emphasise our dissociation with the cruel methods of the Canadian seal hunters.

It is therefore important for Petit Nord to declare to our customers and other interested parties that:

- At Petit Nord we exclusively use Greenlandic seal pelts for our products. We never use pelts from baby seals, but only from adult seals. On Greenland only adult seals are hunted, never baby seals.

- At Petit Nord we buy our seal pelts from Greenland with the guarantee that the seals have been hunted in the only reasonable and responsible way that seals have always been hunted on Greenland. Greenlandic hunters use a rifle, and the seal dies instantly. Seal meat is an important part of the diet on Greenland, and the pelts are sold for the manufacture of clothes, thus also to Petit Nord.

In Greenland there are rules for the yearly number of seals that can be shot, corresponding to fish quotas in other countries. The seal population is therefore stable, and the hunting of seals is an integrated part of life and nature on Greenland.

New EU regulation regarding seal pelts

During 2009 EU made a new regulation on import rules for seal skins. This means that it is only allowed to import 'Inuit' seal skins from Greenland into the EU. No other seal skins can be imported. This regulation secures the customer, that when you buy a seal skin product in the EU, you know that the material comes from adult Inuit seals which are hunted primarily because of the meat. All Petit Nord sealskin products comply with these new EU regulations.

Animal welfare

Petit Nord has specialised in producing shoes, mittens and hats for children in various natural materials such as cow hide, suede, lamb skin and seal skin. We find it our responsibility to consider animal welfare in production of our products.

It is important for Petit Nord that we can vouch for our products. We are very thorough when we choose suppliers of skin and fur for our products and make sure that the animals whose skins we use have had a good life and have not suffered any harm in any way. All skins and furs for Petit Nord designs come from animals where the meat is also used for human nutrition.

Working conditions

All Petit Nord’s designs are manufactured in the EU in close collaboration with Petit Nord. We regularly visit the workshops and factories and thus have close contact with the suppliers and persons who manufacture our products.

We can therefore guarantee that all Petit Nord’s products are manufactured under proper conditions and at wage rates that correspond to or are higher than minimum wages. Furthermore, we can guarantee that no child labourers have been used for the manufacture of our products, which in other parts of the world is a frequent problem in the textile industry.

Materials

Petit Nord’s materials all originate from the EU, Greenland and Iceland. This gives us a good knowledge of the composition of our materials. We are very attentive to having our materials as pure as possible. The users of our products are babies and small children. It is therefore of the outmost importance that our products contain no dangerous or unsuitable materials.

We choose natural materials to synthetic materials anywhere possible for our production, and we always substitute with organic materials when possible.

Petit Nord supports children in South Africa.

”We cannot save the world but we can make a difference“. With these words Petit Nord has decided to actively support the Danish based Amatola Foundation, that works with education, training and empowerment of children and youth in the poor Western Cape region in South Africa.

The most crucial problem of South Africa today is HIV/Aids which leave many children grow up without parents. The Amatola Foundation works with a number of orphanages and the support from Petit Nord mainly goes to these homes.

You can also support the children in need. Please visit the homepage of the Amatola Foundation: www.amatola.dk