Letter: Caught in the cruelty trap

IT SEEMS strange that, as a 'regular contributor to various animal welfare charities' and as someone who opposes the use of cruel traps 'against beautiful wild animals', Roy Lee-Faulkner (Letters, 13 February) endorses the use of raccoon fur to make coats.

It is human beings who are entirely to blame for the raccoon becoming a 'problem' in cities. In the wild, the most popular method of capturing raccoons is the steel-jaw leghold trap. This is a cruel trap by any measure and one in which racoons, in particular, have a high incidence of 'wring-off'. This is the trappers' euphemism for an animal's self-mutilation in order to escape a trap, often leaving entire paws behind. Or does Mr Lee-Faulkner think that the fur industry harvests animals killed on roads?

Nor does Mr Lee-Faulkner seem to mind the wearing of fur bought before the 'current public sensitivity about fur'. Fur is fur, cruelty is cruelty and extinction is forever. To parade in a snow leopard coat bought years ago can only serve to bolster the dwindling attraction of fur to those woolly-headed individuals to whom it is still desirable.

Nic Davies

Crowborough, East Sussex