Slaughter in fashion

Press, 12 February 1979, Page 16

Slaughter in fashion

By

ENA KENDALL

People who refuse to wear furs on the ground that they look better on their original owners are no longer regarded as eccentric. Public opinion, with a few helping prods from conservationists, is gradually swinging round to tne view that human vanity is a poor reason for endangering animals already under intolerable pressure. The luxury market in industrial countries is one of the main stimulants of the war of attrition against many species. Leather of the highest quality comes from the skin of the salt-water crocodile. and crocodiles and alligators. often shot before they have a chance to breed, are among the world’s most threatened animals. Almost any animal with big teeth is a prey for the trinket trade, just as musk deer are sacrificed for their musk glands, rhinos for rhino horn—regarded as an aphrodisiac in some countries — the helmeted hombili. a striking bird from the East Indies, for the horn-like casque on its bill, used for the carving of miniature ornaments, scenes and belt buckles. Most tortoise-shell combs and ornamental jewellery are made from the shell of the hawksbill turtle, the rarest of the seven breeds of turtle, all of which are in danger. Japan, where the turtle is a fertility symbol, is the main importer of hawksbill. They come in at the rate 20,000 to 30,000 a year, and hunters scour Fiji, Zanzibar. Aden, Cuba and Nicaragua to get supplies. There is a growing

in London

demand for turtle skins, and baby turtles are preserved and lacquered for the souvenir trade, especially in the Caribbean and East Asia. Wearers of wolf-skin bomber jackets might contemplate that the wolf is already extinct in 11 European countries, that its numbers in Norway and Sweden are down to half-a-dozen and in Finland to 15. These are countries that used to swarm with wolves, now almost wiped out bv hunting, poisoning and the disappearance of food sources. The eradication of the red deer in the Italian Appenines has also led to the decline of the wolf. New controls on trade in products of endangered animal and plant species came into operation in Britain in January. They give effect to the controls on international trade required under the Convention in Internationa] Trade in Endangered Species in Wild Fauna and Flora, otherwise known as the Washington Convention, signed in Washington in March, 1973. The controls will be operated at two levels. There is likely to be a total ban on imports of goods made from endangered species like the hawksbill and ridley turtles, and some breeds of crocodile. A monotoring system will be applied and licences required for products made from vulnerable animals like wolves and some zebras. Anybody, for examle, wanting to import 1000 suitcases made up in Paris out

of Nile crocodile skins would need to produce the export licence from the country of origin, in this hypothetical example, the Sudan. If the Wildlife Licensing Division of the Department of the Environment was satisfied that the Sudan was managing its crocodile resources properly and that they were not in danger of being wiped out, the suitcases would be allowed in. If not, licences would be refused. To date. 51 countries have acceded to the Washington Convention. Of these, about three-quarters are actually putting into effect agreed legislation Japan, which has a deplorable record of animal exploitation, has signed the convention but is doing nothing about it This is no surprise, but it is remarkable to find ranged alongside Japan in the “no action” category countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Republic of Ireland and Portugal. Meanwhile, small African states Hke Togo have not only signed the treaty but are enacting legislation to attempt to save their wild life from further destruction. The convention’s second conference is to be held in Costa Rica in March. The devising of a system of funding the convention in future will be one of the main objects of the conference. So far, the convention has relied on money given to it by U.N.E.P., the United Nations Environment Pro- ~ gramme. — O.F.N.S. Copyright-