The marten, fisher^ and otter, our three most va,luahle fur animals 

 from the standpoint of individual pelts, are in just such a precarious 

 status. The price obtained from these pelts has always remained high 

 enough to cause close- trapping. The animals, although never abundant any- 

 where, have now entirely disappeared from much of their former range* Of 

 these, three, the. otter is perhaps most plentiful because much skill and 

 patience are required to locate its haunts and capture it. 



■To develop young, the female marten requires 9 1/2 months and the 

 fisher 11- months. The whelping seasons of the marten and of the fisher 

 are late in March and early in April. Consequently, in States where these 

 animals are permitted to be trapped, pregnant females are sure to be de- 

 stroyed. Extermination of these species is therefore most seriously 

 threatened. Unless we do something about it, their extinction is inevitable. 



The. Russian Government, in view of the growing scarcity of the 

 Russian S9.ble, prohibited the taking of this animal in Asia.tic Russia from 

 February 1913 to October 1913. This action naturally increased the demand 

 at that time for American marten, and as a result the animal was so closely 

 trapped that the breeding stock was seriously impaired. The breeding and 

 gestation periods of the American marten and the Russian sable were not 

 then known; but the Russians, always fur conscious, took this precautionary 

 measure to prevent further depletion of their breeding stocks. 



The most amazing thing is that with a $500,000,000 annual turnover 

 in the retail fur trade even as late as 1929, no one should have started 

 long ago to put the fur trade on a factual basis. No one knows- whether we 

 produce 12,000,000 muskrats a year and trap 13,000,000, or whether we pro- 

 duce 11,000,000 and trap 26,000,000. How many of the different species 

 are produced and how many killed annua.lly is obviously the first thing to 

 determine in looking to the future trapping of fur animals. Already the 

 annual retail turnover in furs has shrunk to $150,000,000, and the entire 

 cause cannot be attributed to draughts, floods, and the financial depres- 

 sion. A considera.ble portion of it has been caused by ajn increasing 

 scarcity of fur animals. 



Has any policy been adopted for the conservation of fur resources? 

 Is there a nationa.1 plan for the maintenance and preservation of the tre- 

 mendous economic value in fur resources? The trouble is the public has 

 been extremely indifferent to fur conservation, forgetting that this natural 

 resource had. a great deal to do with the development of our country. Even 

 among the State conservation and game commissions there are those who look 

 upon fur anim?-.ls as "vermin," simply because some of them feed on species 

 of game birds that hunters desire to shoot for sport. There seems to be 

 no policy of "live and let live" where the fur animals are concerned. 



The fur trade would do well to face this situation. There is no 

 other group of people to whom the preservation of our fur resources mean 

 so much. As Mr. Darling has told the duck hunters: "Better think soberly 

 in terms of preservation rather than of postmortems." 



How, what can be done? TTell, here is a suggestion: If the fur 

 trade were represented by an organization similar to those maintained by 



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