Young Bela wrote a letter asking people to stop wearing fur coats and to also ban furs. You can see letter at ://thewaxingmoon.blogspot.com/2009/01strike-three.html#comment-form
To Bela I would first say to you, Good For you to stand up and be counted" but please allow me to stand up and be counted also. I would say to you "Look at yourself first". Go into your bedroom and look at where things are made on your gadgets, toys, sheets and clothes. When I see someone wearing a fur coat, I see someone supporting a 465 year old Canadian Industry and also supporting a Canadian Trapper and family. If what you see in your bedroom is MADE IN CHINA or purchased at Walmart, just what country are you supporting? Also on that list, please record the source material of the gadget, toy, sheet or clothing. Is it petroleum based? Is it made from a renewable resource? Can it be recycled? Does it stand the test of time?
Items of note: (Fur Institute of Canada)
Close to 45% of Trapline holders are Canada's First Nations people.
Canada's fur trade contributed $800 million to the Canadian economy in 2006.
Exports of pelts and fur apparel exceeded $450 Million in 2006. This is new money brought into the Canadian economy, not money going out to China or the US.
I am not telling you what to wear or do but I do ask that you allow me to wear what I want and to also work in an old traditional industry which does you no harm but adds to the Canadian coffers. Vikki, a proud BC Trapper
Thursday, January 8, 2009
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9 comments:
Word Vikki!
I'll tell you there is no synthetic fiber available that is anywhere near as warm as my rabbit fir hat.
Bela's intentions were no doubt noble, a victim of the animal rights propaganda movement. I'm not a hunter and I'll be the first to agree that lots of animals are cute and fuzzy. Some of 'em are also tasty! Some, as you know, offer a host of byproducts that are a a better alternative that the petrobased counterparts.
Hope you're enjoying the cold!
Cheers.
Nicely said. I also left a comment on Bela's blog in support of harvesting animals appropriately.
In their own words, the site commerator said " yes, you have entered a Veggan colony", so they are living by their standards which is admirable but in my view a little removed from the real world.
"admirable" and "a little removed"? You guys are much nicer than I:) I think that the world can be clothed through natural materials like fur, wool, and vegetable fibers. What are the typical clothing articles you all wear in the far north?
I have to admit a strong affinity for wool, including alpaca. I would like to acquire a fur hat and mits, not because they're sorely needed, rather I think it would be optimal for my needs. For example, I would like to have a mitten that fits over a very light glove and will easily slide off when needed during a hunt.
From what I've seen, the fur goods are much more expensive than the man-made material, which may be one reason demand is weak in many areas. Example, a pair of beaver mits average around $300 from my limited search. Not sure if the average consumer will bear that cost.
i also found that conversation, he i a copy of what I posted. My post was in relation to some one suggestion no respect for something we kill.
What a great disscusion. I hope your son continues to be able to carry speaking his mind out loud as he grows.
On the topic of trapping. I have been out on the trap line many times, yers ago (9 years last time I was out) and I plan on going back. My father had a line and it was a great place for me to stay out of trouble, gave me a safe (as safe as the bush can be) place to learn to trian and run my sleddogs.
I have a really hard time with when ppl are against fur, since I am for trapping and hunting and fishing.
When I was 20 I left Faro for Dawson, and my new love, he is a native and did very little hunting, and no trapping. Throught the eyes of his family I have learned ALOT, the native I find are different, than most others who come to this area.
You might not be able to respect something that you kill, but I can and I DO. We went out and got our moose for the winters supply of meat. How can I not respect this animal? He is the provider of out winter food, his skin is what keeps us warm, weather moccasin, muckluks, hats, and more (my mother inlaw still tans traditionaly the hides) EVERYTHING is used from a moose (a big difference that I see from the 'otherhunters vs natives) the brian is used for tanning the hide, antlers are used for art, or left in the bush for the rodents to get nutreints from, the guts are taken, all that is left is what is squeezed from the intestines and dumped from the stomach, which in turns feeds animals and birds. How can we not respect something that GIVES so much?
We spent 2 weeks getting a moose, we stalked and called, and sat still in the snow for hours trying to get a moose, with no luck, then we got and "easy" moose. One was off to the side in the ditch on an old rad, on our way back from work. An "easy" moose, is still not too easy, we shot it, let it fall and went in and put it out of any more missory. The moose was in a spot with tracks EVERYWHERE, and was hard to tell what we were looking for, and it was now dark, we got the dog out , onto the leash and took her in, for incase of a bear (a grizzly was up there and tore apart mother inlaws car 2 weekend before). We gutted the moose and went to sleep in the truck. We had fires going, but area had very little wood. Sleeping in a truck is COLD,and very uncomtable. The next morning we were up, and went in and finnished skinning and cutting up the moose to pack out. NOW comes the pack out, out through the bush and through a half swamp. Moose are REALLY heavy. drive home. hang the moose @ inlaws in dawson. drive home to Faro. rehang moose (yes still VERY heavy)Haydens goes back to work in dawson. I am now at home with a full moose to cut and prepare myself. I did most of it, I left 2 front quarters up, and they go to his parents this week so they can have more meat. If you have never done this, perhaps you cant amagine having killed something, and having to respect it. but how can I not?
As for fur, WOW so warm and soft and beautiful. Although many animlas that are trapped are not used to the extent as a moose or caribou. We still use them to their fullest. They hides are shipped to market, or made into warm clothing, there claws and skulls get sold or used for crafts. Some are skinned and sold to taxidrmest. Many animals are usefull as dog food, and some such as lynx for people food. Again I repsect every one of the animals I do catch and the ones I dont. Natives say that animals give themselves to us, this is an interesting thought to consider. When we set traps, we set for a individual type of animal, sometimes for an individual itself. We take care of the set, and resorces around it. When the animals go near a trap, it is their choice to get caught, and although this sound rediculase...is it really? How many trappers go out and see tracks everywhere and not animal in the trap. Many walk by, and keep going, some pee on the traps, and some know how to off set them, and eat the bait, and go along their way. Not everymoose was a moose that was willing to come into range for us.
Everytime I kill something, I say thanks and am aware that I took a life, yes it is something that can be hard to deal with , there is nothing sadder than the eyes of a passing moose, or the finnal fight of a marten that got caught in the wrong trap, and is fighing for his survival.Or having to sit there and skin out an animal that is so beautiful and magnifcent. It IS hard, and there IS respect, there, I do not know how to explain it to some one, who does not understand our way of life.
So why do it? I dont really know. I know I love the outdoors, Ilove living off the land as much as I can, to be on a level of the animals and at natures will I could be "harvested" or make a choice on my own that could cost me my life, and saftey. I am not too interest in sending furs to the market any more, whe I get back out there, I plan to only harvest what I want. What I want is warm mitts, warm hatts warm mukluks, a warm ruff for my coat. I am looking to only take a couple animals this year if I can get onto a trapline as an assitant.
When we moved back from Alberta a year and a half ago, the difference has been HUGE! I use the truck hardly ever, as it is close enough to walk everywhere, so I spend MAYBE enough fo 1 or 2 gerrycans of gas. Alberta we had to drive everywhere since the town is so spread out. Summer I use more gas for work and to go fishing. My garbage is way down. I can fill a shopping bag with garbage about 1 a week, 2 when hayden is home. MOST garbage, is from food packaging, it is simply retarded to see how much wastes come from us just feeding ourselves from the stores. We did a garden this year, and hope to do way better next, and in 2 years I hope to have a garden big enough I can freeze alot or can alot for our winter use.
This year our small and my first time garden, gave us a safe and organic supply of veggies, and not once did I worry about ecoli and samilela the *might* be in there, of course there is always safe handeling when we care for our vegies, but I am aloth more content with my food here.
i know where my meat came from and what it eats, I knwow there are probly none or VERY little other animal by prducts in our moose. I know it did not grow in a barn, eating the dead around it, or living in shit up to it knees, before it was processed and wraped in plastic and styrofom and left to sit in light or on questionable suffeces where who knows what it came into contact with. When I lived in Alberta, I spent alot of time looking for areas to safely run my dogs, and what I found was cows and gas. NOw many would argure about this but this is what I think. Those cows are ongrazing leases, most grazing leases are on oil/gas land. If these cows are on the lease year after year after year, and generation after generation, smelling and breathing the fumes from gas and eating the gas and everything that is also "breathing" this shit in, how long will it take to see the after effects of this? Is this something that has already showed up in our society? with health affects in our people? We were not even allowed to eat the fish there, because the rivers are bad... Most of the moose I saw were skinny, and had mange, I think many from form the stress of ppl being everywhere, running them down with their skidoos in winter, vehicals and equipment and chemical all around, then they wander though the grazing leases....
I have spent ALOT of money on mitts, hatts and ect. all have failed to keep me warm, and dry. but last year I got a pair of muskrat mitts, and for the first time in my life my hands are always warm
HOW CAN I NOT HAVE RESPECT FOR WHAT KEEPS ME WARM AND FED, HOW CAN I NOT.....?
We live in Ohio in the USA and last night our Public Broadcasting Station had a NOVA series on about the arctic. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/
The little I saw of it was talking about how the explorers were in tight wool clothing that they sweated in and became rigid. Then the Inuit (spelling?) people showed them how to adapt. Sleeping naked in igloos under animal skins, dressing in loose animal fur and it not making them sweat and keeping them comfortably warm. It also said the fact they used carribou was no accident. Scientifically it was the best. They also said still today absolutely NO man made fiber could ever work as well.
I'm all for people having fur, I mean, where I live it snows, but not so much that I NEED fur and I don't have any furs. My aunt lived across from a Mink farm for years and trapping animals can not be as inhumane as that was (or stinky! MAN those thinks stunk!)
I just wandered across this posting the other day and then saw that show on PBS last night and wanted to jump online and tell you about it!
Great response. I run into people people like this on occasion when I blog about the subsistence seal hunt here in Nunavut.
Hello Way WAy Up....this is Vikki. When I was 12 back in the early sixties, my father bought me a pair of Seal skin boots. I lived in mid Ontario at that time. I loved those boots. My feet stayed warm and the snow just slide off and my feet never got cold. I wore the fur right off them on the insides but I still wore them. When we moved out here in 1966, they were left back there alone with most of our stuff. No one at that time moved all their belonging here and there. What happened to the Canadian Seal trade was so wrong.
To YukonMusher....I have been out shovelling snow for 3 days and hadn't had a chance to read your long comment. It is very well said and I have felt alot of those feeling myself. There is a connection with the animal that is hard to describe. We see each bird, we watch for hours the ducks returning in the spring. We watch the Eagle dive bombing those poor ducks caught in the only open water...Nature is so hard. We watch the moose on the hills around us dealing with the deep snow knowing that when the top of the snow hardens the wolves will come. Nature is so hard. But we are part of Nature also. Vikki
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