Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-02-03
RANCH-RAISED
FUR SUPPLANTS
WILD QUALITY
Sentimentalists Soon May
Cease Worry Over Methods
of Trapper.
COMMON SENSE RULES

COMMON SENSE RULES
WASHINGTON, d. C.-Much atten-
ton was attracted recently by cartoon
which depicted a fashionable woman clad
in furs, caught in a steel trap and drag
ging herself painfully across the snow.
The Implication was, Of course, that
the trapping of fur-bea ring animals is a
cruel business, that every woman who
wears furs is a party to 1t, and that she
ought therefore to be put in a steel trap
herself in order to learn what 1t feels
like.
This is the kind Of sentimentality that
still makes 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 at
tack on the use of living animals for
scientific experiment, 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 1t went into effect.
sENTIMENTALITY
WOULD END RACE.
sentimentalities about the killing of the
lower sanimals consists in the failure to
recognize the fact that man is car
niverous animal who lives by killing, and
whose only alternative is to be killed
himself, directly or indirectly. 1t is our
inevitable destiny, as the species OF NAM
NAL which dominates the earth, to kill
all other living things in order to main
tain that domination. And it is our duty
as civilized men to kill as cleanly and
painlessly as we can. But the sentimen-
tally which shrinks in horror from kill
Ing 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 mtsh. II
we all became sentimentalists on the sub
ject, the race would soon disappear off
the face OF the earth. At least it would
II we stuck to our sentimentality. AS
matter Of fact, we probably would re-
vert to savagery and recover our lust
for blood.
1t may be objected that while killing
In general is undoubtedly necessary. the
cruel form Of killing represented 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 primarily because we need their
furs either. The fur problem is rapidly
being solved by the raising of fur-bear-
ing animals in captivity. Already ranch
raised fox and skunk furs are standard
commodities, and a great variety Of other
fur bearing animals are being raised In
small but growing numbers.
RANCH-RAIsED FUR
OF BETTER QUALITY.
The ranch raised fur Is better In quail
ity than the wild fur, and 1t is bound to
improve enormously as the methods OF
selectiye breeding are applied to these
creatures. Consider what man has done
with the dog, producing from one or two
parent stocks a great variety Of crea-
lures, varying in size, form, color and
coat There IS no reason to doubt that
some Of the fur bearers will be equally
improved. 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 a food producer with the
owner Of well stocked poultry farm.
Fur win then be produced humanely,
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 farm
ing 70 arouse the sentim2ntalists.
The trouble is that the trapping will
have to 20 right on. If troppers in al
most every county in the United States
did not wage ceaseless war on the pred
atory animals, 10 soIt Of stock raising
would be possible anywhere. These ami
unchecked
founding abundance. 1t would be as i'm
possible to raise chickens in an ordinary
farming community as it is now to raise
them In 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, II viii
he necessary to extend their army enor-
mously. The foxes, skunks, raccoons and
weasels would make life just as hard for
the farmer in the East as the larger
beasts do in the West, where they are
not kept down.
METHODS OF
TRAPPERS.
Perhaps the sentimentalists who cam
P"AEA aSdlHbL tripping huu wearing OF
fur can suggest some better way of kill
Ing these animals than trapping If so,
they should come forward. These crea-
lures cannot be shot, because they are
Nocturnal In habit Poison is a less sure
and often a more painful way of killing
them than trapping. And the trapper
makes his trapping as painless a bust
ness as possible because q frenzied ami
NAL is apt to injure its own fur. Traps
for aquatic animals, such as muskrat
and beaver, are nearly always set at
tached 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 because he knows some wild
thing is apt to find the quarry and
devour it. He makes the business as
quick and painless as he can because 1t
pays to do so,
A good example Of what happens when
a fur bearing animal, or any other crea-
ture, is completely protected. has taken
place in the West. In several Western
States the beaver was nearing extinction,
and so laws were PASSED protecting II
for a number of years. No doubt the
laws were broken a good deal on the
sly, but at any rate the beaver have in
creased greatly.
Now the beaver is one of the most
harmless and friendly creatures in the
woods. He kills neither flesh nor fish.
He eats no growing crops. He lives on
tOa ba rI- Of trees and fha treaa which fur