ECONOMIC BIOLOGY 383 



ing heavily to their extermination. Hunting has reduced big game species 

 everywhere so greatly that they exist only as wards of government. Bounty 

 payments slay their thousands, and "control" campaigns their millions, 

 while "vermin" destruction has in view the absolute elimination of preda- 

 tors; and, carried on without cessation, in some places its object is almost 

 achieved. 



Trappers and hunters should be interested to conduct their activities so 

 as to ensure a continued supply of the animals on which they depend for 

 livelihood, or for "sport"; but ignorance, selfishness and greed among pro- 

 fessional trappers and "sportsmen" prevent positive steps toward this end. 

 The false propaganda of "sportsmen" against harmless creatures is insti- 

 gated largely by the gun and ammunition manufacturers, and is abetted 

 by the state game commissions. Hunters now pursue small animals that 

 men a generation ago would have scorned to call "game"; and are wiping 

 out many of the small creatures of the woods and fields. 



"Vermin" control provides no incentive for the perpetuation of species; 

 its proponents would hail with great satisfaction the death of the last preda- 

 tor on earth; and "vermin" control is the most inexcusable of all the inimi- 

 cal factors now pushing our small animals into oblivion. 



KILLING FOR PROFIT 



The Fur Trade and the Steel-Trap 



The fur business has been pursued so recklessly that the fur-bearers of 

 every civilized country have been almost completely wiped out. The 

 trapper has gone where he could most easily get the greatest money return; 

 until quite recently, he has trapped with little regard to season; and he has 

 relentlessly tracked down the scarce survivors of high-class fur-bearing 

 animals, regardless of sentiment, reason, or law. 



Professor H. Fairfield Osborn, late President of the American Museum 

 of Natural History, said: "Nothing in the history of creation has paralleled 

 the ravages of the fur trade." The United States kills more fur-bearing ani- 

 mals than any other country in the world; Russia comes second. Though 

 furs are, or were, one of our richest natural resources, no accurate figures 

 can be given of the number of animals killed annually. Only a few states 

 require reports from trappers; and it must be remembered that licensed 

 trappers are not the only ones who trap; the Biological Survey says that 

 "the large majority of trappers are farm boys and farmers"; trapping in its 

 most cruel forms is a pastime of every rural section. 



The Department of Agriculture estimates that sixty million animals are 

 killed yearly in the United States, or two animals every second. This De- 

 partment values the fur production of the United States at sixty million 

 dollars yearly. And in addition to the animals on which these figures are 

 based, are those other trapped creatures that are killed and discarded be- 



