Despite the prominence of animal rights organizations in Europe, Japan and North America, the developed world still harvests the lion's share of fox pelts. Scandinavian countries lead the pack, with Finland, which in 1998 harvested 2,700,000 pelts, accounting for more than half the world's fox-fur output. Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden round out the top five. Luckily for Yang and his fellow furriers, the necessities of economic development in China's impoverished western regions and the weakness of animal rights groups in China have kept the pressure off the nascent industry. They tremble, defecate, and withdraw to the back of their cages,' the HSUS Website notes.
Chinese foxes have reason to be especially fearful of humans.
Centuries of Chinese and Japanese folk tales have painted foxes as the embodiment of evil. As a result, few tears are shed when the foxes are harvested. Instead, the region's leaders are anxious to develop the area's economy, and Yang's fox farm has been singled out as an example of a promising emerging industry. Yang's fox farm has taken on even more prominence since last December when the central government in Beijing earmarked Gansu Province and its western neighbors in a massive, multi-billion dollar program to ease the chronic income disparity between the bustling eastern coast and the arid west. And Yang is answering the clarion call.