This letter was written to The Star newspaper in BC, Canada in response to an anti-trapping demonstration
Dear Editor,
If the people at Wild at Heart really want to protect animals in Canada (re: the anti-fur rally in Toronto today), they are going about it the wrong way. The destruction of the environment due to obscene logging practices (600 acre cut-blocks) in B.C., and the Oil Sands Development fields in Alberta destroys more habitat and therefore more animals than all the trapping and hunting combined. The problem is the logging and oil industries carry much more economic and political clout in Ottowa. If the trapping and hunting industry could show similar economic boons, they would be empowered to protect the land that is their livlihood. Instead of condeming these individuals, who, for the most part kill their animals swiftly and painlessly (versus displacing them, starving them, polluting them off the land) – these activists should be joining forces to protect the land at large. It has always been the mistake of the ‘green’ activist to alienate the very people who truly are, ’at heart’, after the same ends – a healthy, diversified environment, with a healthy animal population. In the end, condeming the practice of wearing fur, might save a few hides; but killing the fur industry, and the need for a healthy ecosystem, could kill the whole forest, and all the animals who live there.
