reply to article
urable profession
Friday February 29, 2008
Editor, The Echo;
I write this in response to the letter sent by Cathy Smith-Clark entitled “is this a case of poetic justice”. In this letter Cathy was saddened no more that a trapper, pinned under his ATV almost died of exposure as his fate was akin to that suffered by the animals he traps.
I represent the education component of the Alberta Trappers Association and I suspect that Cathy and I will never really agree on many issues pertaining to traps and animals. I do not intend to seriously debate the pros and cons of fur trapping in this letter as it is not the proper forum. I do however, respect her rights to her viewpoint and just want to make a couple of comments.
First of all she notes that “innocent” animals are trapped. Putting human values on animals is called anthromorphism and animals are never innocent nor guilty. They are animals that must eat or be eaten to survive. The trapper thought of cutting his own leg off to survive and she equated this to animals chewing off their limbs when caught in a trap. This was 50 years ago and I have never seen it since. For this to happen the trapper was negligent. Period! Today the trap must be checked every 24 hours on private land and no more than 48 hours on public land. The conventional foot hold trap has been banned and trappers must use approved traps or face prosecution. Unfortunately many people envision the toothed style bear trap when they think of a foot hold trap. They have been illegal for 50 years in Canada. Today’s traps are offset, padded or laminated to ensure no bone fracture can occur. Swivels and shock absorbing springs are also included in the trap to minimize the stress on the animal. The traps are not designed to “crush” as Cathy stated, but to hold the animal.
The great wolf restocking program in Yellowstone or Idaho would not have been possible without this style of trap as it allows the trapper to release an animal for whatever reason. One of the most obvious is when we are called to trap coyotes near urban areas and trappers catch someone’s dog. The dog can be released, although the dog running loose and not under control is another issue, you cannot blame the trap for the caught dog.
Cathy noted that fur is the warmest thing and termed it an excuse. Most of the parka trim I have noted is fake fur (a petroleum product) which is non biodegradable nor renewable, which real fur is. I also would note that real fur is warmer due to the under fur and guard hair and for that I make no excuse.
She states that trapping has been outlawed in most of Europe for 60 years. Possibly true although Holland still traps up to a million muskrats a year to protect their infrastructures and these muskrats are not used for the fur trade, but are burned and wasted. I understand that the steel-jawed leg hold traps are banned in Belgium, however this is only on public land and 90 per cent of the land in Belgium is privately owned and traps are available for sale. Sounds hypocritical to me and I wonder if part of the reason there is little trapping in Europe is that they have a larger population and less habitat. Canada has been trapping furs for 400 years and animal populations are still good. The greatest danger to animals is loss of habitat not regulated fur trapping.
Some think that banning fur trapping is the simple solution. Tell that to someone that has been flooded out because of poor beaver management or whose pets come down with rabies because of disease sweeping unmanaged wild fur bearers.
Trapping of a renewable fur resource is, in my opinion, an honourable profession and the large majority of trappers I have met have first hand knowledge, respect and concern for the animals they harvest. Could we do things better? I hope so and research to make traps even more humane is the answer. This is why I support fur trapping.
On another note the trapper survived his ordeal and for that we are grateful. No person should have to die doing a public service like Ken did. This said, I am glad there are people like Ken out there monitoring the health of the environment, doing a job that is not for everyone in an effort to keep our fur resource healthy.
Jim Mitchell
Trapper/Public
Education
Alberta Trappers
Associat
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