After an 18-month undercover investigation, The Humane
Society of the United States (HSUS) released appalling information about
the fur industry's clandestine and worldwide dealings in domestic dog
and cat fur. Millions of Americans tuned in to Dateline NBC on December
15 and watched in horror as an Asian dog furrier slowly skinned a German
Shepherd alive.
The brutality was swiftly condemned by the TV-news
magazine and a majority of Americans who empathized with human's closest
companion. However, virtually no one wanted to recognize the hypocrisy
in not condemning the entire industry of fur.
First and foremost, what's the difference between coyote
fur and a dog fur? The thought-provoking animal rights adage "Why do we
call some animals pets and others dinner?" can be slightly altered to
rhetorically answer the first question: "Why do we call some animals
pets and others fur coats?"
The continual demarcation of one sentient being over
another is unethical and unjustifiable. Moreover, this arbitrary
discriminatory mind-set only allows the relentless exploitation of
non-human animals to flourish.
The HSUS report documented dogs and cats living in
deplorable conditions waiting to be hanged, suffocated, bludgeoned or
skinned alive. However, minks, foxes and chinchillas live and die in
similarly hideous ways. Manual neck-breakings, mass gassings, anal
electrocutions, genital electrocutions, drowning and toxic chemical
injections are the standard killing techniques on every fur farm. Plus,
the snaring of millions of free-roaming animals like coyotes, cougars
and wolves in vicious steel-jaw leg hold traps is comparably vile.
The HSUS story should shock no one. The fur industry
exists to profit off the deaths of fur-bearing animals; domestic or
non-domestic. It is void of ethics, compassion and altruism.
Antithetically, the animal rights movement exists to
eradicate the injustice, iniquity and barbarity hurled upon our
planetary companions. It has no money vested in the freedom of animals.
In fact, if the depraved forms of animal exploitation were abolished,
animal rights humanitarians would only gain justice. Meanwhile, tens of
thousands of individuals and corporations would stand to lose hundreds
of billions of dollars. Therefore, it is easy to understand why the
myriad forms of animal murder, especially the bloody, nefarious and
shameless fur trade, escape total condemnation.
Also, those guileful magicians who work for the fur
industry's public relations departments and entice the media with those
defeasible fur-is-back stories, create a smokescreen of misinformation.
The spin doctors manipulate sales figures even though the new Sandy
Parker Reports (SPR), a fur trade publication, stated that fur farmers
will be cutting back this season due to low pelt prices, an outbreak of
distemper and fur farm raids.
SPR also said that some of the 440 U.S. fur farms are
expected to go out of business in early '99. And, if the situation
doesn't improve by the February auctions, others will sink, too.
Anyone who condones the lamentable industry of fur
should call ADAPTT at 810-763-2715 or
[email protected] and request a four minute fur farming video. Then,
if anyone still believes that any fur is acceptable, I suggest she or he
reflect on the meanings of empathy, morality, honor and dignity. India's
great leader Mohandas Gandhi once proclaimed, "The life of a lamb is no
less precious than that of a human being. The more helpless the creature
is, the more it is entitled to protection from humans from the cruelty
of humans."
For more information on fur, contact J.P. Goodwin of the
Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT) at 214-503-1419 or
[email protected]
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1998 Issue
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