Evening star., 1905-11-11
CAUGHT IN BEAR TRAP
PAINFUL EXPERIENCE OF A
TRAPPER OF WILD ANIMALS.
An Idea of the Suffering Endured by
the Creatures That Furnish Fur
for Boas, Muffs, Caps,
Written for The Star.

Written for The Star.
Last winter while riding in an electric
street car 1 noticed a sweet-faced woman
on the opposite seat absorbed IN the pages
of little magazine devoted TO animals. y
few minutes later, as the car stopped to
take on a passenger, we heard a commo-
ton in the street outside. and looking, we
saw a man beating a horse which had
fallen on tie icy pavement.
The sweet-faced woman sprang to her
feet, and with a single ejaculation, oh!
You brute.' hurried off the car and sum
moned a policeman. l followed to see that
the fellow got all that was coming to him,
and he got it, too. before THE Society
With the Long Name" had finished with
him. But there was just one amusing
thing about this whole affair-the sweet
faced lady who pushed the case with SO
much energy wore on her person set OF
furs which had cost the lives of twenty an
imals each one of which had probably suf-
fered far more pain and misery than the
horse over the treatment of which she had
been so wrought up OF course, had she
seen those animals suffering 1t would have
wrung her heart, but as she did not see 1t,
and as in all probability no one had called
her attention directly to the matter. she
simply wore the furs and thought nothing
about 1t.
Disasters which overtake those whom we
do not personally know affect US in inverse
proportion to the distance at which the dis
asters occur. II man falls from our roof
and breaks his neck on our doorstep We are
deeply shocked, we cannot eat our dinner
and we have received impressions which we
can never get rid of as long as we live. II
the same accident happens in the next
town we feel sorry and may even help TO
support the mans widow, but the shock Is
comparatively slight. If it occurs IN Eu-
rope somewhere we are not shocked at an
in the proper sense of the word, and II the
news of IL comes from emma we SIMPLY pay
no attention to it.
Yet the magnitude of the disaster is the
same in each case the physical suffering
as great in China as in our own back yard.
This is the reason that we wear furs; II
we saw the muskrat whose pelt we propose
! to use for a cap gnawing its leg Off IN a
| steel trap we would choose some other
material for the cap, but as We don't see
| 1t We don't worry about 1t.
How the Furs Are Procured.
| If there is an after world of punishment
| for those who infiict unnecessary cruelty
| on animals. the trappers. buyers and wear
ers of furs will probably be sent to the hot
test corners of it. The misery caused by
| the practice of slaughtering birds for mil
| linery purposes, great as Ii has been, was
not q circumstance to that brought upon
| the four-footed creatures whose skins are
! In demand to supply the fur trade In the
| first place, the instrument used in procur-
| ing most of these furs Is the steel trap, an
essentially cruel device. Most of the an
| imals to be caught are strong, healthy.
vigorous creatures. whose struggles would
| soon result In their escape from any trap
| whose jaws did not hold them with mer-
/ ciless grip. Most of the fur-bearing an
| imals are very tenacious of life, and when
| caught in trap are apt to live for days
unless killed by the trapper or by some
| other wild animal. Trappers In q small
was of business set few traps and are
| able to visit theIa every day, and In such
cases the captured creatures cannot suffer
! for more than twenty-four hours.
| But even so. think OF the torture endured
| by a wild thing lying in the jaws of stee
| trap for q single night You simply cannot
| imagine 1t unless you happen to have ar
| experience similar to that Of a trapper
/ met some time ago.
| He was returning to camp after long