FUR-FARMING IN CANADA 97 



full-brother. Some kinds of animals, as, for example, the beaver and the 

 otter, h?.ve overhair which is not always considered as beautiful as the 

 underfur alone. Thus, they are put through a process of pulling and 

 the manufactured skins are usually plucked. 



Usually animals intended for slaughter are fed well and are 

 Killing carefully housed so that no injury can be done the overhair, 



such as from rubbing, the attachment of burrs or from lying in 

 dirt. The killing presents no difficulty except that it must be done so 

 as not to alarm the breeding animals. Therefore, in most cases, the 

 animals to be slaughtered should be removed to the finishing pens in 

 the autumn. The fox is usually killed by crushing the chest with the 

 foot, a man's weight applied just back of the foreleg being sufficient, or 

 the head may be forced back until the neck is broken.* Skunk, on 

 account of its liability to scent, presents the greatest problem. It can 

 be removed from its regular pen, however, by a wire snare placed on 

 the end of a long pole. It is then dispatched outside its pen by the 

 usual method of clubbing. If scenting is feared, it may be drowned in 

 a tub of water. 



There are two distinct methods of removing the skin. Some 



Skinning . . , . . 



and Curing animals are opened down the belly, as m skinning a sheep, 

 and the sldns are stretched flat or ' open '. Others are 

 slit up the hind legs to the vent and the skin is stripped off the rest 

 of the body. These are stretched by a board wedged inside and are 

 said to be ' cased '. The methods of skinning in use for common Cana- 

 dian fur-bearers are as follows : 



Cased — Fox, marten, fisher, weasel, otter, skunk, lynx, cat, 

 muskrat. 



Either Cased or Open — Raccoon, wildcat. 



Open — Wolverene, badger, beaver, wolf, bear. 

 The process of removing a cased skin is well described by the Fur 

 News Magazine as follows : 



" Slit skin on both hind legs on the under side of animal 

 from the heel to the vent; skin out the legs to the feet, and in the 

 case of mink, skin out the toes and leave them and the claws on 

 the skin. Skin around the tail, leaving the tail on the back of the 

 skin, and after loosening the tail bone at the base, take hold of it 

 with your forefinger and pull it out of the tail. If the tail bone 

 is hard to remove, split a stock, insert the tail bone in split, and 

 with this to grip the bone, you should have no trouble to pull it 

 out. 



* See page 47. 



