Letter to the Editor: Compassion is the fashion

Published in the Concord Monitor
Nov 25, 2018

Each year in New Hampshire thousands of animals are killed for their fur. Cruel practices used include leg-hold traps, bludgeoning and drowning to death by fur trappers and electrocution in fur farming. New Hampshire has one fur farm in Lyndeborough and over 500 fur trappers.

Whether used as a full-length coat or simple trim, fur represents pain and suffering. Enduring the excruciating pain of a trap or a lifetime of agony in a tiny cage, the animals suffer immensely.

Unable to eat, keep warm or defend themselves against predators, many animals caught in traps die horrible deaths before the trapper arrives to kill them. Others suffer in the traps for days until they are caught and killed.

Temporary nurse wages skyrocket, leaving nursing homes and hospitals scrambling to staff facilities
Farm-raised fur comes from animals kept in tiny, filthy cages. There are no laws regulating how animals on fur farms are to be housed or killed. The techniques used to kill animals on fur farms include neck snapping, anal electrocution and carbon monoxide or dioxide “gas chambers” that often prolong the death of animals and allow them to regain consciousness while being skinned.

With so many fashionable fur alternatives available, there is no reason to wear animal skins. We are not survivalists. To cause the suffering and death of other sentient beings for pleasure is wrong. We have an obligation to maintain a decent standard of ethics, which at the very least includes preventing animal cruelty. Please put an end to this suffering. Do not support the fur industry.

ALEXANDRA ZERBA
Bow