Swiss (likely) to outlaw trade in cat pelts
Sooner or later.
RETURN FIRE
LUCERNE - Had just one of her cats disappeared last October, Isabelle Nydegger would simply have assumed it had lost its way in the nearby forest or been attacked by a dog or wild animal.
But first Zeus, a 2-year-old black tabby, vanished. A few days later it was her 2 -year-old black and white tabby, Zorra. And, finally, the prize of her brood, 4-year-old Merlin, a fluffy white Siberian whose perky visage remains in her mobile phone six months later. All were gone within the first couple of weeks of the fall hunting season.
The cats, Nydegger and others are convinced, were shot by hunters near this central Swiss city and sold to tanners for their fur, which is used in garments and blankets in the last West European nation where such a trade is still legal.
Legal, that is, but increasingly stigmatized — and soon Switzerland is likely to outlaw the practice.
So, you discover “tradition” and “culture” in a cozy Western nation that doesn’t differentiate between companion species and wild animals.
Posted: Thu - April 3, 2008 at 08:15 AM