FUR-FARMING IN CANADA 



lives for many hours — in cases I have known, for more than a day and 

 night — under the pressure of a heavy log, sufficient to hold it like a 

 vice, and when the middle of the body was pressed perfectly flat. Nay, 

 under one such circumstance which I recall, the animal showed good 

 fight on approach. When caught by the leg in a steel trap, the mink 

 usually gnaws and tears the captive member, sometimes lacerating it in 

 a manner painful to witness; but, singular to say, it bites the part beyond 

 the jaws of the trap . . . The violence and persistence of the poor, 

 tortured animal endeavouring to escape are witnessed in the frequent 

 breaking of its teeth against the iron — this is the rule rather than the 

 exception. One who has not taken the mink in a steel trap can scarcely 

 form an idea of the terrible expression the animal's face assumes as 

 the captor approaches. It has always struck me as the most nearly 

 diabolical of anything in animal physiognomy. A sullen stare from 

 the crouched, motionless form gives way to a new look of surprise 

 and fear accompanied by the most violent contortions of the body, 

 with renewed champing of the iron, till, breathless, with heaving flanks, 

 and open mouth dribbling saliva, the animal settles again, and watches 

 with a look of concentrated hatred, mingled with impotent rage and 

 frightful despair." 



When it is remembered that millions of animals are captured 

 yearl}^ in traps the sum total of their sufferings must be so great that 

 the cruelty practiced on dumb domestic creatures, which so greatly 

 concerns the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, must 

 seem slight in comparison. The methods of killing domestic animals 

 are humane and painless, and it would seem that humane considera- 

 tions alone present a sufficient argument for the domestication of fur- 

 bearing animals. 



The first step towards raising animals for their fur was 

 Fu™bearers taken years ago when kai'akule sheep — a domestic animal 



from which the Persian lamb and broadtail are obtained — 

 began to be bred for its pelt. Up to recent years this animal was the 

 only example of a valuable fur-bearer in captivity. It is a domestic 

 animal merely, but, because of the difficulties in travelling, in language, 

 in religious prejudices of the people who breed them, in knowledge of 

 good stock, in quarantine laws and in remoteness of the district in 

 which they flourish, it has been very difficult to secure specimens for 

 breeding purposes. Latterly, exceedingly optimistic reports of suc- 

 cess in karakule 'crosses' in the United States have been reported. 

 If the Persian lamb can be economically produced in America, millions 

 of dollars will be saved annually, as the use of this lasting and hand- 

 some fur is increasing steadily. That the business is regarded in 



