Green fur response

November 25, 2007

The industry has been pushing different variations of this message for many years, and there’s a ton that can be said in response, but here are two quick thoughts. (Of course, the industry would love to talk about anything but the cruelty, so it’s good to jump right back into that.)

First, trappers burn an enormous quantity of gasoline (and oil, in the two-stroke engines) to check their trap lines. There is constant starting, accelerating, and stopping as the trapper comes to each set on a trap line that can be many miles long.

Here’s a recent article that mentions gas prices:

http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/9430159p-9342332c.html

Burke said it is difficult to pinpoint the reason a given species is harvested more or less from year to year because so many factors affect trapping.

"It's dependent on so many things, such as the price of fur, how expensive gas is to go out and set and check traps, and how the snow is. If there's not enough snow, trappers can't get out to set traps, and if there's too much snow it can bury traps, and if it's too icy it can freeze traps," he said.

Here’s a letter I had published in the Montreal Gazette:

Trapping has some non-ecological spinoffs

Letter

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Re: "Fur turns trendy as eco-label appeals," (Business, Feb. 21). It is important to consider that many trappers in Canada and the United States check their traps with a truck, snowmobile or ATV. These vehicles are not known for their high gas mileage or pristine tail-pipe emissions, especially snowmobiles with two-stroke engines.

Consumers who look past the smokescreen will see a fashion-driven industry based on clubbing or shooting animals that do not freeze to death, drown or gnaw off their own paw to escape.

Pierre Grzybowski

The Humane Society of the United States

Second, tanning (or “dressing” as the tanning of fur pelts is called) is by no means benign. China, the world’s leading producer of fur pelts and fur products, has a poor track record, according to the industry itself.

http://www.furcommission.com/news/SP4t.htm

SANDY PARKER REPORT, VOL. 31, ISSUE 34, OCT. 29, 2007

China again tightening rules

CHINA, IN ITS EFFORTS TO DEAL WITH ITS HUGE POLLUTION PROBLEMS, is again issuing new rules that signal problems and higher costs for a broad number of industries, including the fur trade. While the country's industrial expansion in recent years has been tremendous, little attention has been paid to the effects on the environment which, by many accounts, has been ruinous. It is only in the past year or so that the government has been taking measures aimed at forcing the polluters to clean up their acts and return the country to its 'green' state. Last year, it temporarily stopped issuing import permits to dressing plants whose effluents were polluting local waters. More recently it indicated a new list of restricted categories would be issued soon.

Last week, the Ministry of Commerce issued a notice that exporters would be banned from trading abroad if they were found in violation of environmental protection rules. An inspection of the enforcement of those rules will be launched soon, it said. According to the notice, some exporters have ignored the country's regulations on environmental protection while striving to lower their costs. Chinese trade analysts said these are the most severe measures the ministry has adopted to crack down on violations in the last four years. Since raw fur imports for processing and fur garment exports are not now restricted, the belief is there are no changes in their status at this point.

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