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Anti-fur values

Dear Editor:Dear citizens of the Roaring Fork Valley and the world beyond: Let’s use this new year to recoup our values. Remember, the ones we had in the ’80s? Remind the new generation of what’s important in life. The following is an excerpt from an article by Jeff Hull, a freelance writer from western Montana and author of Pale Morning Done.”Every year the fur trade slaughters more than 4 million foxes worldwide, both wild and farm-raised, primarily for decorative trim on garments. Whereas anti-fur campaigns in the ’80s led to a falloff in fur coat sales, the popularity of fur trim among younger consumers saw fur sales in the U.S. reach a 15-year high in 2002. This has resulted in the slaughter of increasing numbers of animals.”In China farmed foxes spend their entire lives in rows of tiny wire-mesh cages, which destroy their delicate paws and drive them, quite literally, mad. Swiss animal-rights activists at Chinese fur farms have documented foxes being skinned alive, bodies thrashing, eyes blinking, mouths shrieking 10 to 15 minutes after their pelt was torn from their flesh. Closer to home, we have the medieval simplicity of the leghold trap. In 1863 Charles Darwin wrote, “Few men could endure to watch for five minutes an animal struggling in a trap with a crushed and torn limb.”Sorry to be so graphic, but it saddens me to see the fur trade doing so well on the streets and slopes of Aspen. We’re supposed to know better. What happened?Mary HarrisCarbondale