Fur: industrialized cruelty
By Jeff Kramer
Student Columnist

Recently, a friend of mine was searching through the Winston-Salem Journal’s classified job listings and came across a disturbing ad. Our local Belk store in Hanes Mall is seeking individuals experienced in the fur industry to fill positions in a “soon to open Fur Salon” run by Henig Furs. This ad serves as a reminder to anyone concerned about animal welfare – the fur industry, with all of its associated cruelty, is still active despite the best efforts of animal rights activists.

According to the Web site www.henigfurs.com, Henig Furs operates over 20 fur outlets in the southeastern United States, most of which are located within larger department stores like Belk. Henig Furs offers such favorites as “fashionable mink, beaver, fox … and the very finest Canadian and Russian lynx, chinchilla and Russian sable.”

Along with fur coats, Henig sells fur-lined gloves, hats, headbands and even mink teddy bears for kids. Belk’s decision to harbor a furrier like Henig is extremely distasteful and objectionable. The fur trade is one of the most cruel and shameful industries left to blight the American commercial scene.

Dozens of species of animals are used to make fur products, but the most common victims are foxes, mink and otters. All animals killed for their fur are either trapped in the wild or raised on farms.

The most common way to trap fur-producing animals is with the “leghold” trap, according to Facts About Furs by Greta Nilsson. The jaws of this simple device close on the legs of any animal unfortunate enough to trip the trap’s spring. The trap’s teeth-like jaws then penetrate deep within the animal’s leg. The terrified animal will often struggle to free itself from the trap for hours, exhausting itself and ultimately forcing the trap close even tighter. Some desperate animals will chew off their lower legs, escaping the trap but dooming themselves to later die from infection, predators or blood loss.
Animals like beavers and otters are trapped in similar underwater traps and are forced to drown in an agonizing struggle that takes 20 minutes or more.

According to an article by Dan Dinello in the Oct. 5, 1987 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times (“Women, Is That Fur Coat Worth All the Suffering That Animals Endure?”), most animals give up on escaping their traps, and are later killed by men checking on their traps. As if the animal has not endured enough, they are killed in ways that hardly serve to minimize their suffering. The most common technique is to place a sturdy stick over the animal’s neck, stand on the stick, and violently jerk the animal’s head upward, breaking the neck.

Other methods include bludgeoning the head of the animal with a hammer or shovel, choking or electrocuting the animal, or, in the case of foxes, standing on the fox’s neck while stomping near its heart repeatedly until it bursts within. To make matters even more disturbing, these techniques are actually taught to trappers by most of the major United States trapping organizations.

Traps are also indiscriminate: dogs, cats, birds and other animals are often found in traps, and small children are known to have been crippled from leghold traps. Over 3.7 million animals are trapped and killed annually for their fur in the United States, and close to a million other “trash” animals are inadvertently killed as well.
About half of the animals used for fur are raised on farms. In many ways, farms are an even more cruel to animals than are traps. About 500 fur farms exist in the United States, accounting for over 2.7 million animals killed annually, according to the Humane Society of the United States and www.furisdead.com. Life for animals within these farms is scarcely humane – four foxes or minks are forced to live 1” by 2.5” cages, with only tiny bowls of food to share.

Water is provided to the animals in small bottles, but this water often freezes in the winter, denying the animals nourishment for long periods of time. Minks and foxes are both very social creatures, and life in these small cages often leads to self-mutilating and cannibalistic behavior. Disease is rampant in these cramped conditions; animals are forced to live in their own excrement for months at a time. When it is time for the animals to be slaughtered, the means of execution are no better than those used for trapped animals. Animals are often packed into small boxes and then forced to inhale truck exhaust fumes until they die of asphyxiation, a technique not unknown to Hitler during the Holocaust.

In order to preserve pelts, animals are often electrocuted through electrodes attached to the animals’ lips, or their necks are simply snapped. Sometimes, the exhaust or electrical shocks are not totally effective, and one can only imagine the horror and pain the animals endure when they “wake up” as they are being skinned. According to Skin Trade Primer by Susan Russell, to make a common 40-inch coat, over 40 foxes or 70 minks are necessary. It is not surprising that the demand for individual pelts is so great.

Some states, as well as the European Union, have banned the leghold trap. However, it is important to realize that the fur industry is far from moribund. Over $1.2 billion is spent on fur and fur-trimmed coats annually in the United States in stores like Belk.
Some speciously argue that northern tribes rely on fur trapping for their livelihood. This is simply not true – most fur trappers only make about $100 annually for their pelts. Also, according to a study by the Ford Motor Company, it takes 40 times the resources (energy, labor, etc.) to make a ranch-raised fur coat as it does to produce a synthetic one.

Compassion is not partisan – the animals who are killed so hideously for the fur industry have no voice, and it is the responsibility of caring citizens, whether liberal or conservative, to take a stand against this cruel and antiquated industry.
Write to Belk and encourage them not to bring in Henig Furs. If they persist, convince your family and friends to shop elsewhere this holiday season. Show Belk and Henig Furs that you will not stand by and allow them to perpetuate an industry whose basis is the heartless abuse of animals who cannot fight back.