Animal activists urge residents to "have a heart"

A Mississauga animal rights activist was among more than a dozen protesters who targeted a Port Credit fur shop on Saturday.
Paul Figueiras and other members of Hamilton-based Compassion for Animals protested in front of Bazinas Furs, on Lakeshore Rd. E. They say they were there to raise public awareness of how animals are mistreated in the making of fur products.
The protest was one of many Have a Heart, Don't Buy Fur demonstrations held in 24 Canadian cities and seven provinces to mark the 20th annual National Anti-Fur Day.
Figueiras said many myths are perpetuated in the fur trade.
"The fur industry claims that it's an environmentally friendly product and it's not," he said. "There's a lot of toxic chemicals that go into tanning and the production of fur and it's completely unethical in this day and age when we have access to many other options."
Laura Lee, Compassion for Animals campaign manager, said many people who have fur-trim coats think they're wearing fake fur, but that's often not the case.
"When it's dyed black, green or blue, these people think they're wearing fake fur and that it's not real," Lee said. "But that's what the fur industry wants them to think."
Lee wants people to be aware of how animals are mistreated for the sake of fashion. Nearly 30 per cent of the animals are caught in steel leg traps, she said.
They're electrocuted, gassed, poisoned and stomped to death, Lee added.
"A lot of the time, the animals are skinned alive," she said.
Nobody at Bazinas Furs offered comment, and someone inside the store pulled down the blinds and locked the doors as protesters rallied outside.
However, Rob Cahill, executive director of the Fur Institute of Canada, a non-profit umbrella organization representing the fur industry, told The News that trappers only use the "most humane" equipment.
He said the steel leg traps with "teeth" have been outlawed for almost 30 years in Canada and the ones used today don't harm animals in any way.
Cahill added, "Skinning animals alive...that is not at all a common practice nor at all an acceptable practice in Canada."
He said animal rights groups will argue any point to help their cause, but what they don't realize is that the fur industry is the livelihood of about 60,000 trappers in remote areas of Canada, and trapping also controls the animal population.
"They live more naturally than any of us in the city...can imagine," he said. "They eat wild game, drink water out of rivers and part of their income is harvesting fur off the land."
jle@mississauga.net