What do fur farms in eastern Canada have to do with foxes in California? Prior to the late 1800s, red fox fur was primary harvested from wild foxes. Of these wild-caught furs, the most valuable pelts were from “silver foxes” — melanistic red foxes that have black or silver fur⁠. The advent of farming silver foxes is attributed to Robert Oulton and Charles Dalton, who began breeding silver foxes on Prince Edward Island in 1894. In 1910, Oulton and Dalton sent 25 silver fox pelts from their ranch