Karu Story
1837 – The Karu (scientific name: Trichosurus vulpecula) is introduced to New Zealand’s shores from our Australian neighbours in the hope of starting a fur industry.
1858 – The Karu was delivered in a series of batches but little did our forefathers know of the colossal damage to the environment they would incur.
1921 - New Zealand realises that there are little to no natural predators for the Karu so the government decides to prohibit further releases.
1941 – Graeme was born in Arapuni on the Waikato River and grew up on his family's Dairy Farm. Graeme graduated in Veterinary Science from Massey University and started his own Veterinary Practice in Whakatane in 1973.
2010 – Graeme establishes KARU in the hope of providing the world with 100% Natural New Zealand fur, all hand-made. Creating a series of fashionable items using the very resourceful and unique fur and leather of the Karu Bear.
2013 – Graeme teams up with Kris.
2014 – KARU opens its flagship store in the heart of New Zealand’s luxury fashion retail zone at 60 Queen Street, Auckland.
2016, September - KARU opens their second flagship store at 1 Queen Street, Auckland CBD.
There are an estimated 30 million possums in New Zealand. Half of them are female and they have one offspring per year. In no time we are overrun by possums. They do a lot of damage to the natural environment. Each possum consumes for than 5kg of vegetation every night, so that's more than 15,000 tons of New Zealand vegetation destroyed every night.
To protect our environment, and even to maintain numbers at the current level, our government and trappers need to trap at least 15 million per year. Most of the control is achieved by using the posing 1080. This poison itself is harmful to the environment. To understand the animal and to find better ways to manage, we are doing our own research at the KaruBear Research Center in Whakatane.
To protect our environment, and even to maintain numbers at the current level, our government and trappers need to trap at least 15 million per year. Most of the control is achieved by using the posing 1080. This poison itself is harmful to the environment. To understand the animal and to find better ways to manage, we are doing our own research at the KaruBear Research Center in Whakatane.
In the meantime, we are using some of the animals that are trapped to make our products. We feel that this is better than seeing the animals killed because of the need for population control to go completely to waste.