WHITBY REKPREEss/RDNESAIUWAAJY098840P 7 PAGE SEVEN MEOTE. SDEGREEN W3'Q5E ~ ENVIRONMENTALSTS vs CANADIAN FURS A few weeks ago, the British animal rights lobby lost its battle to have Canadian furs specially labelled that the animals used may have been caught in leg hold traps, but allies on the continent continue to push their case before the European parhiament. The alleged goal of these groups is "to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves" - a noble cause to be sure, but their methods are sensationalistic and misleading. They are masterful manipulators of public and political opinion and their success at lobbying European leaders has made the protection of defenceless little furry creatures in far off lands a major force in European politics. At risk are large parts of the Canadian economy. The issue is not the life and death of a few more animals but rather the death of the culture of most of our northern natives - the end of a proud and independent lifestyle, a delicate balance between man, beast and the elements that should be an ecological example to the world. This is not a new battle that the European environmen- talists are waging - it is merely an extension of the successful war they waged against the seal hunt during the seventies. These lobbyists deal not with reality, but with powerful images of cuddly helpless little seal pups or fur coats dripping with blood. Sentiment is far more powerful than reason. If they attacked their own meat-packing industry which kills animals in vastly greater numbers, they would have virtually no support, but attacking an industry in a foreign country is fair game - the political risks are nil. It is ironic that the fur trade was brought to N. America because of the European thirst for furs. What has changed in the last three hundred years except our sensitivities? The issue of leg-hold traps is a red herring. If a successful more humane trap could be developed, I am sure it would be used, but apparently none of the various designs invented over the past twenty-five years has survived, presumably because they don't work. To the animal activists, the plight of suffering animals offers irresistably powerful imagery, but it is the killing itself, not the manner, that they oppose. In the seal-pup debate, when it was demonstrated that clubbing was at least as effective and humane as any other method, they persisted in their opposition. When other more expensive methods were used, their opposition continued. Nothing less than a total ban was acceptable. And Canada bears the price. Not only has the sealing industry disappeared, but as the seal population increases without control, the parasitic codworm which is harbored and spread by seals is infesting the east coast fish stocks at an alarming rate. Is it less humane to kill animals and use their fur than to let them overpopulate and *die of hunger or spread disease to other animals? Are the animals more important than the people who have hunted them for generations? What will these people do when their livelihood is gone? Join the unemployed of course - after all, wasn't unemployment insurance designed for just such situations? Sure, but rarely are the jobs lost because of Thiellow Orick M S ULt in1883forANlclTweJ LN T. Barcay9an political action in foreign countries. subsqelowneribk anoteawyer 13Jaml ta laer onebThBassett The conundrum for the Canadian government is that the family a nd dled 191.WhibyAthes photo attacks on our fur industry are only implicit - Canada is not directly involved. If Canada were to attempt to in'fluence 1 ER G European public opinion, it would be viewed as interfering in fo h ensaJl 2 98eiino h their internal politics. In the çode of international diplomacyWHTYFE PR S that is. verboten. So Canada's hands are tied - we attempt to AreotofnacnofserteBokiwstbedtRgoalCuiloay work through government channels knowing full well that *Frtescn osctv erteWib hme fCmec soeaiga European politiciañs are far more likely to respond to the votes ifrainboha h orcres of their own people than to the plight of our native population. LarDieow rofaWtbcrdaesipdoneinakScggnJuy9 The problem with the environniental movement is that it *TeDra einYC d o mlyetSriei on omn uies tends to look at the environmient as ¶omething quite separate from man rather than look at man as an integral part and co-benefactor. The image of mankind as the exploiter and 2 ER G destroyer of nature is well-rooted in the modern history of thefrmteT rsaul1,193dionfth Western world - industrial man hias made a mess of the world WIB EKYNW around him. Perhaps it is the mess in Europe that bas resulted WityBasBnanthBulBndoteQensOnRfespsnedaccrtn in the strength of the "green" movement there. Perbaps it is the Cnena akls ek loss of their own natural environmient that has made them lose *TeS.Jh' muac rgd scnutn t is udasn rv nhty sight of the fact that Canada's northern natives and the outport*WibyTwsiisacsnthTonfhtbofnasssetgaintseoitos fishermen of Newfoundland are very much participants rather t cur onbpln o nutildvlpet than exploiters of their respective environments. Perhaps it is cnsapud theseueots ofne theirthewlawyrlJaeifeultdat basas laereowedebythenBsset M l .1[ protect ours. To those who have never been here, Canada is the last great unspoiled wilderness in the world. 100YEARS AGO Nevertheless, not all environmentalist are opposed to fur from the Friday July 13, 1888 edition ofthe trapping. Greenpeace, perhaps the most vocal and visible of al WHIBY CHRONICLE environmental groups, dropped its opposition a few years ago The Whitby ighland Club will host the games of the Caledonian Society of Toronto, at because it realized that the relationship between native hunter Whitby on August 13. and animal was a centuries old part of the ecological balance of*Cbe tobacco at entertainments in the Music Hall or in church, should be banned, says the north - that the human predator was as much a part of the The Cronicle. northern ecology as wolves and bears. Rev. A.M. McCIellan&of Burns' Presbyterian Cburcb, Ashburn, hasreceived B.CL. and Perhaps Greenpeace could use their influence on their D.C.L. degrees from Kings College, Nova Sctia. European friends before they unwittingly destroy the delicate Herbert Thompson nearly lost his right arm in a machine accident at the Mowat •T WhbHgadCbilothgmsft CedinoiyoTtManufacturing Companyos agricultural implement foundrv. •bCewlgtoacoea etetanmntuinthnMsirHllbrenrhuchcsoultbubnndeay m --i -Z.J M 1- "zlWW