Letter to the Editor: Yukon News and Whitehorse Star Nov 23/07.
Re: Yukon Trappers Association government fur sale.
It is very thoughtful of the Yukon Trappers Association to sell the body parts of animals "acquired through seizures, problem wildlife control, and road kills" on behalf of the Government of Yukon.
It is even more thoughtful of the government to pay commissions to the trappers association for each sale, for all their hard work.
Maybe a bit of money will be left over for the government's conservation fund after the trappers association's commission and the cost of the large advertisements in the paper are subtracted from the proceeds from the sale.
What exactly does the conservation fund do? Does it come to paying the expense of the government resources required to obtain all these animal parts?
Clearly, the government has no ambition to reconsider its human-wildlife conflict policies, since the destruction of "problem animals" provides furs for this sale.
But is anyone truly profiting from the sale of these animal parts besides the trappers association?
Certainly not the animals.
Mike Grieco
Whitehorse