Ocelots?

[David Madison]

Ocelots?

This coat made out of ocelot?
Yes, madam, it does cos’ a lot;
But though the price is very steep,
It’s relatively scary cheap:
No matter what one pays to get
One, ocelots pay dearer yet.

It’s called the fur trade, madam, yes,
And it’s a fair trade, you might guess:
The trader with the store gets flack
—O--LOTS—for all upon his rack;
The traders with the furs—please, toss
These on—all get BIG species (loss),

Some twelve to eighteen furs per coat,
Yes, hardly reason to emote.
Some cry (not I) for all we pay,
It’s dearly, dearly hoped that they
Who, madam—fits you well—abet it,
Read this furse, and don’t fur-get it.

Thank you, madam, for the whittle;
Now the lot is ocelittle.

 

[Arizona Docent]

There is a scottish wedding scene in the comedy film "So I Married An Axe Murderer" in which one of the bagpipe players has the bag on his pipe made from ocelot pelt. Thankfully, the large-scale spotted cat fur trade of the 1960's and 1970's is a thing of the past. (I realize it does still happen, but on a much smaller scale).

Speaking of ocelots, we recently had our second confirmed sighting in my home state of Arizona (USA)!

 

[Saola]

Agreed, large-scale fur trade is indeed a thing of the past in most of the world - except in Asia. Ocelots and other cats of the Americas may be safe, but China has become a giant vacuum cleaner sucking up all tigers, leopards, snow leopards and clouded leopards from South-East, South and Central Asia - as well as otters, pangolins, turtles, bears, rhinos, elephants...

 

[Monty]

I agree the sale of fur from endangered species in their naive habitat is a severe problem.

Here in Australia the destruction of the fur industry has caused damage to our native species. We used to have a large fur industry based on introduced foxes and rabbits. I remember in the 80's when fox skins were worth over $50 how rare it was to see a fox. Once fox fur prices collapsed fox numbers sky-rocked as the many fox shooters found it became unprofitable.

I would like to see an environmental friendly label on furs from from introduced pests so people know that by buying these furs you are helping to protect endangered species.

 

[Steve Robinson]

Now that would be a good example of practical conservation.

Who do we need to approach to get the ball rolling?

In our district foxes are out of control already and their breeding season hasn't started yet.

 

[Monty]

We just had our yearly Southern Riverina Hunt Club fox drive on Saturday and Sunday morning. We only got 18 foxes and 2 cats but we think the foxes are using holes more than usual as there were lots of fresh holes we did not get the foxes out of.
We did not check the stomach contents on the foxes but did on one of the cats. It had at least 2 Stubble Quail in it even though we have a mouse plague at the moment.