HUMANELY OBTAINED FURS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The
class of people to whom the editor of the Fur Farmer refers in his article last week, as preferring to buy what he calls " uncruelly obtained furs," would do well to consider whether the keeping of silver foxes in captivity is really as kind as it appears.
I believe these animals can be made into pets. Some breeders may so treat them, but the ones I have seen were in pitifully small enclosures for creatures with roaming and predatory habits. There must, I think, always be cruelty in caging any fox. As to the relative cruelties involved in' captivity plus a morphia needle and a free life with some hours of agony in a trap to end it, the latter seems to me perhaps the best. One of the most natural deaths a fox can die is death by hunting.
Why not face the facts ? It is not possible to obtain, furs humanely, for the simple reason that animaLs prefer to keep their own skins until they die. To get a good pelt we must kill its owner in the prime of life : I do not believe the fox is grateful to us for so kindly chloroforming it.
we want to wear furs, instead of the equally warm substitutes available, let us admit that we are barbarians and be done with it.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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