The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-15
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. @.
FUR AND sENTIAfENTALTTY.

I
toon which depicted fashionable wo-
man clad in furs, caught in steel
| trap and dragging herself painfully
across the snow.
| The implication-was, of course. that
the trapping of fur-bearing animals is
cruel business, that every woman
who wears fur is a party to it, and
/ that she ought therefore to be put in
steel trap herself in order to learn
what it feels like. =.
This is the kind of sentimentality
that still makes a hit with a large part
of the American public, despite the
fact that it is as alien to common
sense and the facts of the case as a
nightmare. 1t is in the same class
with the persistent attack On the use
of living animals for scientific expert
ment, which involves the sacrifice OF
their lives. The prevention of this
use of animals in the preparation OF
serums and anti-toxins alone would
cost thousands of human lives the first
year it went into effect.
The fallacy underlying all of these
sentimentalities about the killing or
80 lower animals consists in the fali-
ure to recognize the fact that man is
a carniverous animal who lives by Kill
| ing, and whose only alternative Is 10
be killed himself, directly or indirectly.
L
species of mammal which dominates
the earth, to kill all other living Things
| in order to maintain that domination.
| And it is our duty as civilized men to
| kill as clearly and painlessly as we
can. But the sentimentality which
| shrinks in horror from killing is a
symptom of race degeneration. The
sentimentalist who would abolish all
killing. lives only by the protection OF
those who are not so squea mish. II
we all became sentimentalists on the
subject. the race would soon disa ppear
off the face of the earth. At least it
would If we stuck to our sentimental-
| ity. AS a matter of fact. we would
probably revert to savagery and re-
cover our lust for blood.
Is Trapping Necessary?
1t may be objected that while kill
ing in general is undoubtedly neces-
sary, the cruel form of killing repre-
scented BY the catching of animals in
steel traps is not necessary. But as a
matter of fact it remains necessary
until some other equally effective and
more humane way of killing these
creatures is discovered. And not. pri-
marily because we need their FUR
either. The fur problem is rapidly
being solved by the raising of fur
bearing animals in captivity. Already
ranch raised fox and skunk furs are
riety of other fur-bearing animals are
being raised in small but growing
numbers. The ranch-raised fur is bet
| ter in quality than the wild fur, and
| it is bound to improve enormously
as the methods of selective breeding
are applied to these creatures. Con-
slider what man has done with the dog,
producing from one Or two parent
stocks a great variety of creatures,
varying in size, form, color and coat.
There is no reason to doubt that some
| of the fur-bearers will be equally i'm
proved. The fur farmer will put the
| trapper out of business. The trapper
will no more be able to compete with
him than a man with a shotgun could
compete as food-producer with the
owner Of well-stocked poultry farm.
Fur will then be produced humane
| ~, at least in appearance. If given
his choice, the fox would rather run
wild and be trapped than live in a
pen all his life and be drowned in a
bucket. But at least there is nothing
| about fur-farming tsroutrage the SEN
| timentalists.
Animals Must Be Killed.
The trouble is that the trapping will
have to go right on. If trappers in
almost every county in the United
States did not wage ceaseless war on
the predatory animals, no sort OF
stock-raising would be possible any
where. These animals, unchecked,
would reach an astounding abundance.
1t would be as. impossible to raise
| chickens in an ordinary farming COM
munity as it is now to raise them in
a complete wilderness. Already the
taxpayers of the nation, cooperating
with those of a number of western
states, are maintaining a little army
| of government trapperS to keep down
the coyotes, wolves and panthers in the
west. When the private trappers go
out of business. as they probably will,
lit will. be necessary to extend this
army enormously. The foxes, skunks,
just as hard for the farmer in the east
as the larger beasts do in the west,
were they not kept down.
| How Trappers Work.
Perhaps the sentimentalists who
campaign against trapping and wear
| ing of fur can suggest some better way
of killing these animals than trapping.
If SO, they would come forward. Those
creatures cannot be shot because they
are nocturnal, in habit. Poison is a
Hess sure and often a more painful way
of killing them than trapping. And
| the trapper makes his trapping as
painless a business as possible because
a frenzied animal is apt to injure its
own fur. Traps for aquatic animals,
such as muskrat and beaver, are nearly
ALWAYS set attached to a sliding pole
in such a way that the trapped animal
is dragged under water and drowned
almost Immediately. The trapper goes
to his traps as often as possible be-
cause he know some wild thing is apt
to find the quarry and devour it. He
makes the business as quick and pain
less as he can, because 1t pays to do so.
A good example of what happens
when a fur-bearing animal, or any
tother creature, is completely protected,
has taken place in the west In sew
eral western states the beaver was
Inearing extinction, and so laws were
passed protecting it for a number OF
years No doubt the laws were broken
a good deal on the sly, but at any rate
1.-THE beaver have increased greatly.
Now the beaver is one of the mos.
harmless and friendly creatures in the
woods. He kills neither flesh nor fish
He eats no growing crops. He lives
on the bark of trees, and the trees
xrIa lob ,;cl, ~ 60, T. ~