Fur farming has been on a roller coaster for the last 20 years, mostly as a result of fashion fads and folks who think if humans market mink pelts, mink should be allowed to market human pelts.
The animal rights people, until recently, hadn’t become too excited about preserving foxes and clothing stylists produced designs featuring fox fur trim. The result was in 1978 the fox fur farmer was getting a record $364 per pelt, while the more luxurious mink pelt only averaged $34.
Where there had been only 194 fox farms in Canada in 1978, by 1987 there were 1,040. The Swedes and the Norwegians also got into the fox business in a big way. The market was soon glutted and the animal rights people vilified fur farming in general so fox prices nose-dived to $38 per pelt and mink dropped to $20.
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Suddenly an $80 million business became a $21 million business and 600 fox growers and 200 mink producers took up other employment, according to Statistics Canada.
I’m waiting rather nervously for the day when some misguided soul decides producing wheat and carrots under intensive cultivation interferes with vegetable rights.
So far the animal rights people believe they have to have their morning fix of carrot juice and natural bran. But we do have horticulturists who believe if you talk nicely to a plant it will produce more than if you sneer at it and call it crude names.
It’s only a short step from there to insisting both animals and plants must be allowed to live in harmony.
What’s for supper?
