Killed for her Fur - Stop New Bobcat Fur Farm in Montana!
- by: Mary Elizabeth
- recipient: Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Park
After thirty years of breeding, confining, and killing hundreds of lynx and bobcats in North Dakota, the Schultz Fur Farm wants to re-open in the state of Montana – and your public comments are the only thing standing in its way.
At Larry Schultz’s former North Dakota farm, over 50 exotic cats, including Bobcats, Eurasian Lynx, and Canada Lynx, lived the entirety of their short lives locked in tiny, wire cages devoid of any enrichment. All they knew was confinement, pain, and fear.
To Schultz, these intelligent animals were nothing more than “crops”, existing for one reason – so that their pelts can be sold on the international market and their kittens into the pet trade. But when oil drilling came near his North Dakota farm, the noise and disturbance resulted in so much stress that his cats started killing their own kittens. With his “stock” dwindling, Larry Schultz is seeking permission to move his cruel business to the state of Montana.
“It’s farming,” Schultz said in a recent interview. “It is just a different type of farming.”
Mr. Schultz took some of his first bobcats from the wild, then forced them to act as “breeders” for his new operation. To “farm” his “crop”, Schultz tears the newborn kittens from their mothers when they’re 18 days old. This allows the mother to produce another litter right away.
Kittens lucky enough to be born with unsuitable pelts will be sold into the profitable pet trade, where they will be marketed as safe “housepets” to unsuspecting consumers. A bobcat, even when hand-raised, is still a wild animal, and so many “pet” wildcats are abandoned by their owners or even euthanized once they start showing their natural instincts. They are the lucky ones.
Most kittens on Schultz’s proposed farm will be killed for their pelts as soon as they are the proper size. Their mothers will be sold as taxidermy when they are no longer able to reproduce.
A bobcat kitten on a fur farm can be electrocuted, poisoned, skinned, and sold when she’s as young as four weeks old.
Because the fur farmer’s top priority is obtaining a clean, undamaged pelt, and because there are no federal regulations regarding the humane treatment of animals on fur farms, the cats can be abused and slaughtered in the most horrific ways – and it’s all legal.
Genital electrocution, which induces painful cardiac seizures in the cat by running a powerful electrical current through its body, is very popular, despite being deemed “unacceptable” by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Other popular methods are gassing, neck-breaking, and bludgeoning. Sometimes, these methods fail, and animals are skinned alive.
The fur industry is so undeniably cruel that several countries, including Austria, Croatia, and the United Kingdom have banned fur farms within their borders. It’s harmful to the environment, too - the pelts are treated with dangerous chemicals to ensure that they will never biodegrade, and Schultz plans on spreading bobcat fecal matter, which often contains harmful zoonotic parasites, on his hayfield. These infectious agents can put our waterways at risk. And with today’s synthetic materials, there is simply no longer a legitimate need to wear fur products, despite Schultz’s claims that it’s a “necessity” in other countries.
Despite the overwhelming evidence against it, the State of Montana views fur farming as a “form of agriculture” and plans to approve the permit for Schultz’s fur farm in the hopes that it will bring revenue into the state. But due to overwhelming public rejection of fur, the best pelts only fetch $300 each - not the windfall that Montana's expecting, and certainly not worth the pain and suffering required to obtain it.
We have until August 29th to tell the Montana Fish, Game, and Parks committee to deny Schultz's permit. Add your name to this petition, and a message against the fur farm will be sent to the FGP in your name.
Together, we’ll send a clear message: Cats are not “crops", and fur farming is not welcome in Montana.
We, the undersigned, are strongly against the approval of the proposed Schultz Fur Farm near Roy, MT.
Our first and foremost concern is for the welfare of the animals. According to the EA, the bobcats will be housed in wire-floored cages which are only 24 square feet in size. This is far too small to comfortably house an adult bobcat, as the American Zoological Association recommends a minimum enclosure size of at least 42 square feet per cat. The wire floors will cause great discomfort or even injury to the animal’s feet, and the total lack of enrichment for these intelligent, wild animals will likely result in neurotic behaviors. In fact, the conditions which Mr. Schultz plans on farming his bobcats in would be illegal in most other states. Why should Montana allow it?
Furthermore, because there are no federal regulations regarding the humane treatment or slaughter of animals on fur farms, the cats can legally be slaughtered in the most inhumane ways. Genital electrocution, which induces painful cardiac seizures in the cat by running a powerful electrical current through his body, is a very common slaughter method, despite being deemed “unacceptable” by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Other slaughter methods include gassing, poisoning, neck-breaking, and bludgeoning. Sometimes, these methods fail, and animals are skinned alive, all for a product which nobody needs in this age of synthetic materials.
The fur industry is so undeniably cruel and unnecessary that several countries, including Austria, Croatia, and the United Kingdom, have banned fur farms within their borders. Many Montana and U.S. citizens are also strongly against the fur farming industry, so allowing Schultz to set up shop in the state will tarnish the state’s good name and set the stage for a firestorm of condemnation. All for a product that’s only worth, at the most, $300 per pelt – so it won’t be a major revenue source for the state.
The bottom line is that wildcats are not mere “crops” to be farmed, they are living, sentient animals whose welfare must be considered.
We are also concerned that Mr. Schultz will sell some kittens into the profitable pet trade, as he has in the past. This is an extremely reckless act. The kittens are bottlefed and sold to unsuspecting consumers who think they are buying a “tame” animal. But the truth is that, even when hand-raised from birth, a bobcat can never be truly domesticated and will always retain its wild instincts. A fully-grown bobcat is perfectly capable of killing small children and pets or causing serious injury to an adult. Encouraging people to take these wild animals into their homes creates a very real public safety risk and puts additional strain on wildlife sanctuaries, which are already bursting at the seams with unwanted “pets”.
There are also serious reservations about the environmental impact of the proposed farm. According to the EA, the manure the cats produce will be used as fertilizer on the property’s fields. This has the potential to be very risky to both the environment and to public health. Cat feces have more than twice as much nitrogen as the same amount of manure from cattle. If this nitrogen “runs off”, local waterways could be adversely affected. Even more concerning is the presence of parasites and infectious agents in wildcat feces. According to an article published in the scientific journal Veterinary Parasitology, 51.7% of wild bobcats surveyed tested positive for the presence of the toxoplasma gondii parasite, which is not affected by ivermectin and can be spread to humans and other animals via fecal matter. This study also found that captive wildcats often have even higher infection rates than their wild counterparts. The authors of the paper found that “such levels of infestation are of public health concern, as these wild felids… …could pose a public health risk to the water supply.” For this reason, Cornell University warns, “It is not recommended that homeowners use any manure from cats or other meat-eating animals, since there is risk of parasites or disease organisms that can be transmitted to humans.” T. gondii can cause encephalitis, neurological diseases, blindness, and even death in immunocompromised persons. There are also potential environmental hazards from the toxic chemicals which must be used to preserve the furs after they’ve been harvested.
Once again, we implore you to deny the permit for Larry Schultz’s proposed fur farm. This outdated, cruel, and unnecessary industry has no place in Montana. It will cause undue pain and suffering to the animals, put public health and safety at risk, and result in very little economic impact for the state.
We don’t want a fur farm in Montana, and neither should you.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
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