Fur Trade in Canada

Many thanks for your excellent and balanced article about trapping, animal rights’ groups and the Dogrib Indians of Canada. Some perspective is sorely needed in debates of this nature. Here in the United States, millions of animals are killed every day to supply the supermarkets which we all take for granted, and my guess is that more than 90% of Americans wouldn’t want it any other way. The Humane Society annually kills hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats, and our white middle-class denial insists that we only “put them to sleep.” It is a sign of our times: the man who wears Gucci shoes is admired, and one who wears furs is a beast.

Rather than give up our denial, we can do what rich, powerful white people have historically done in dealing with poor, weak, nonwhite people. We can deprive the Dogribs of their livelihood, destroy their cultural identity and pronounce them the white man’s burden.

DAN JENNINGS

Palm Desert