In this issue of The Nation you will read some pretty shocking statements (see fur story, page 12). Shocking at least to any of you who haven’t had a run-in with the animal rights groups. The Nation staff attended a fur show in Montreal and of course outside met up with the anti-fur evangelists and their converts.
The reason I call them evangelists is that the one time I attended an anti-fur rally it was like entering some sort of temple and seeing a Billy Graham Crusade Special gone bad with plenty of hellfire, testimonials, fanaticism and a sort of speaking in tongues. When they spoke in tongues it was more of a “say what?” situation for me. As the local pro-fur anti-Christ, I did get up and speak my piece but was quietly flanked by over-sized ushers from rebutting answers to my concerns and questions.
As with most people, they didn’t enjoy hearing someone say their fight was hurting people. Well, they didn’t really think about that because most of them don’t know Natives and their culture. In fact most weren’t even aware of the extent that they could hurt Native culture and some didn’t care.
This is hard to take sometimes but you should be aware of their motives. I mean they have a genuine desire to help the other inhabitants of the land besides humans. They however lack knowledge of the Crees and the land. Most come from cities where their experience with animals is the occasional raccoon, squirrel or flying rats as they like to call geese in Toronto and other parts.
Anthropologist Harvey Feit said it best when he said these people were suffering from the Bambi complex. Basically the Bambi complex is a human being’s desire to include animals as part of the family of humans. Where the Crees and other Natives call the animals brother and accord them equality in the game of life, the Bambies don’t. In their world, the animal is relegated to the position of a child to be protected from the bad adults who might take advantage of them. In the case of the fur industry, that translates into fur ranchers and trappers.
The fur outlets are a target because to the media it’s more exciting than driving a hundred miles to cover the blockade of a fur ranch. And who could really manage to interfere with a Cree trapper all year-round? The anti-fur people would have to spend long periods of time in the bush following a trapper without knowledge of the area or how to survive. They might even learn something or have to partake of the trappers’ hospitality. This might lead to doubts and a follower would be lost.
Sorry, just a fantasy but in reality it is a little harder to hurt someone you know than someone you don’t. This is why we should endeavour not only to educate but get to know the anti-fur people. You might not change the minds of the hard-core believers but you have a chance to change the way some people think and act This would be better than becoming angry and just reinforcing their ideas and opinions about Natives. That would just give them a reason to dehumanize Natives in the fur wars,
Be calm and reasonable, it can’t hurt and might even help.
