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If you’re a trapper, you are most likely familiar with a website called TruthAboutFur.com, a group of “leading fur authorities in Canada and the USA with a mandate to provide accurate information about this remarkable heritage industry.” Their website is full of interesting and accurate information about the fur industry and, unlike anti-trapping/hunting activist groups, TruthAboutFur.com is “all facts no fiction”. They also produce an excellent blog that exposes the many lies spread by the antis about the fur industry and the hunting community.
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| The author skinning a ‘very dead’ lynx. |
We have all heard about and perhaps have even seen the video titled, “The shocking reality of the China fur trade”. The video shows two men beating and then skinning an Asiatic raccoon that’s still alive. It’s a tough video to watch, so don’t watch it if you don’t have to.
The video was taken in 2005 and released by a Swiss animal-rights group where, of course, it went viral. PETA jumped on it and ever since there has been wide-spread belief that trappers beat and skin animals alive.
This video has seriously harmed the fur trade, made trappers out to be cruel savages, and is still being used to this day as a tool against the fur trade. In late April of this year, actress Angelica Huston wrote in the New York Daily News, “these animals are trapped, gassed, drowned, and even skinned alive.” Angelica Huston is an Oscar and Golden Globe winning actress and, of course, an honorary board member of PETA.
Now, as a trapper, I couldn’t even begin to fathom the thought of skinning an animal alive – why would anybody do such a thing? Well, as rock band Pink Floyd wrote in their famous song Money... “Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today.”
Because of the harm the video has done to the fur trade, and knowing that trappers do not skin animals alive, the International Fur Federation (IFF), an “organization to represent the international fur industry and regulate its practices and trade”, decided they’d had enough and sent an investigative team to China to find the men responsible for the atrocious act that took place in the video. The investigation “has revealed – and documented with filmed confessions and signed affidavits – that the horrible scenes shown in that disgusting video were, in fact, intentionally staged by professional activists who paid poor Chinese villagers to perform these cruel acts for the camera.”
I can honestly say that all along, trappers for sure, knew that the animal-rights crowd was behind the making of this sickening video. Groups such as HSUS, PETA and others will stoop to extreme lows to try to discredit both the fur trade and the hunting community. The worst part is they continue to get away with it while bilking millions from those sucked into their propoganda.
What the Chinese men did was sickening, of that there is no doubt. But just as equally sickening, perhaps even more so are the animal-rights groups that continue to claim animals are being skinned alive, knowing full well that the torture that raccoon went through was because of their actions alone.
According to Mark Oaten, CEO of the IFF, “We do not skin animals alive and animal-rights activists are aware of this. This is why they have had to stoop to bribery to try to damage our industry. We want to send a clear signal to anyone who seeks to deny consumers the freedom of choice by these quite wicked and, frankly, twisted tactics – if we find you out, we are coming for you and we will expose you. And if you repeat this behaviour, we will sue you for damages.”
You can read more at TruthAboutFur.com and watch the IFF’s investigative video at www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=z6joIOEk6JU ■
For previous Outdoor Pursuits click here.
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