Special Report: Hunting & Trapping

Page 7

Trapping protested

The anti-fur street demonstrations that dominated the media last summer may have actually been beneficial to many hunters and trappers, however the Ontario Humane Society says it will continue to oppose what it calls the "inhumane and cruel" practice of trapping.

Since the demonstrations took place in Toronto last June, featuring a protest rally complete with an inflatable beaver and a video showing blood oozing from fur coats, many trapping and hunting organization have formed, including two in Alberta. The federal government has also been forced into a more active role which has seen the Fur Institute, based in Ottawa, expand its operations and coordinate many programs through Environment Canada and the provincial governments.

The Fur Institute of Canada was formed four years ago and is funded by the federal government and private sector fur industries, however, institute spokesman Kirk Smith says his organization was not formed in reaction to the anti-fur lobby.

"We were formed to look at research into the environment and into the harvesting of furs as well as looking to educate both hunters and trappers and the public," he said.

The institute keeps a close eye on the numbers of certain animals killed each year and ensures that no species is over-harvested.

Although Smith dismisses the anti-fur and anti-seal skin groups as "extremists" he does feel the industry was adversely affected by the publicity surrounding the controversy.

"A lot of innocent people have been hurt, including the general public, over the media extravaganza. Most of those hurt were the Inuit and inshore fishermen."

However, Smith feels that the publicity surrounding the annual seal-kill in eastern Canada will not be repeated over other fur-bearing animals because most of these animals are not so "eye-appealing" as the baby seals.

"We'll probably never seen another white-coat kill because of that lobby, but that's as far as it will go ... other organizations have tried the same tactics with other animals, such as the crocodile and the elephant, but they have not succeeded," he said.

Smith also feels that the average Canadian is "tired" of the extreme and often violent methods used by the anti-fur groups.

"Many realize that the ends do not justify the means and we can't destroy Native people just to protect the environment ? we can't destroy property to preserve animals."

Other government-funded departments have joined with the Fur Institute to look into education including Environment Canada which has formed a trap research program based in Vegreville and is currently working on a series of trapper education programs.

Research into new and more humane traps is being studied in Vegreville and the controversial leg-hold trap has been modified, said a Canada Environment spokesman.

However, these concessions do not appease the opponents of the fur industry. One of the organizers of the recent protests is Ottawa Humane Society Public Relations officer Christine Mason, who feels that like bear-baiting, cock fighting and pit-bull fighting, trapping will eventually die out.

"There is public awareness of the cruelty of traps," says Mason, whose group maintains that humane traps are impossible.

"Yes, you could invent a trap that would kill immediately, but the pelt would be ruined. And that is why people trap," she says.

Mason feels Aboriginal people are being used as a "front" for unscrupulous non-Native business people who want to make a "living from the suffering of animals."

"right here in Ontario we have 1,500 licensed trappers ? only 300 are Native as opposed to 1,200 non-Natives. I'd like to question who those government departments are protecting. It certainly isn't Native people," she says.

Unlike most government officials who feel the seal kill protest was just an isolated victory for the anti-fur lobby, Mason says she is confident that within a century there will be no fur harvest.

"It's not goingto happen overnight but eventually it will happen. I realize that to many people we are attacking a tradition but all our ancestors were hunter/gathers; we all had to adapt to our changing environment. Native people must adapt too."

"Trapping is cruel and inhumane and I don't think the fur industry can dispute that," she says, adding that "in the end we will win this battle because we have right on our side."

Currently the Humane Society is running anti-trapping television advertisements on Canada's east coast and in the northern United States. However, Mason will not disclose further details of the Society's plans because she is "well aware of what the opposition, with all their many millions, can do to sabotage our plans."